The Great Broker Chase
by t3nsh1
Summary: *** Story Contains major spoilers for LoTsB and most of ME 2 *** This work is meant to provide a full dramatization of the events shown in the Lair of the Shadow Broker DLC. Takes place post collector with a Femshep x Liara, 1 Sided garrus x femshep
1. Chapter 1

** Disclaimer: This Story is a dramatization of the events depicted in Bioware's Mass Effect 2: Lair of the Shadow Broker DLC All characters and large portions of the dialogue and story events are the property of Bioware and in no way owned by me. This is simply a tribute to a great peice of interactive story telling enjoy.***

"Jeff, I require assistance." called the gently soothing yet firm voice of the Normandy's Artificial Intelligence known as EDI.

The simple, direct statement caught Jeff "Joker" Moreau off guard as he was currently focused on the comm traffic between his Commander and her fire team on the planet below. As helmsman he needed to be ready to re-position the Normandy for rapid deployment and pickup of the drop shuttle among other duties. His Commander, Sarah Shepard, was in the middle of a firefight against Blood Pack mercenary forces that had cut her off from their planned extraction zone. Joker was seated in the cockpit of the Normandy, a full body chair which enveloped his thin frame, his hands reaching out and above him to manipulate the myriad of holographic flight controls displayed before him. The cockpit was essentially the nose of the ship, the ceiling tapered to meet the floor just beyond where Joker sat. His station occupied the majority of the front of the ship, where once two pilots had sat side by side in a slightly smaller space, this cockpit had been designed for a single, skilled pilot while keeping comfort in mind.

"Can it wait EDI we're in the middle of something here?" Joker waved a hand absently to his left in the direction of EDI's most regularly used visual display. The holographic projectors used to create EDI's image, a perfectly rounded sphere of evenly spaced blue dots, cast a faint blue glow over the Normandy's flight controls. His light brown shadow of a beard did nothing to hide his frown as he narrowed his hazel eyes, making a point to be concentrating on his job.

"That is why we must speak now, all other crewmates are currently distracted, there is little to no chance of anyone else overhearing. This is important Jeff." EDI made the end statement almost an imploring request that Joker found himself unable to ignore.

Closing his eyes, Joker turned his head towards EDI's holographic display and opened them again, letting a deep breath escape him. His mind raced as he thought about the implications of the AI he had come to treat with a growing measure of familiarity wanting to have 'secret' talks'. At first he decided it must be a Cerberus trap in order to create distrust and allow them to recapture the ship. After remembering that all that would take is another purge of the ship, he decided the AI was most likely benign in it's nature.

"Make it quick ok?" Joker used his surprising willpower to keep his voice full of compassion and patience which he didn't actually have at the moment.

"There is a concern regarding Shepard's combat performance, I have been calculating possible causes and have reached only one determination, the point of origin. Beginning during our operations on Illium her combat efficiency has been degrading: more missed shots, fewer lethal shots, more damage to shields and combat armor, 2 broken ribs, a concussion, particle weapon burns..." EDI's 'mouth', several rows of solid blue bars covering the center of the sphere, moved out and retracted in time with her voice.

"Yeah yeah I get you EDI she's been getting hurt... but thats... that's just Shepard. The commander does everything she can to make sure that the fire is coming at her even though some of the most dangerous aliens in the galaxy fight next to her on a daily basis. I mean hell, you saw her when we pulled her out of the Collector Base. Wait... are you saying that you think something happened on Illium and it's affecting her performance?" Joker's sense of urgency broke through his usual ramblings as he struggled to keep an eye on his HUD and split his listening between the combat chatter and EDI's "problem".

"Precisely." came the short affirmation. What Joker didn't know was that EDI had just registered a damage spike on Shepard's internal hardsuit monitor. The Commander had taken bullet damage to her right side. It had been the catalyst that started their conversation.

"So why come to me with this? And why all the secrecy?" Joker shrugged impatiently, a frown again creasing his lightly bearded face.

"I do not want to impact morale. You have known her the longest out of any currently active crew members aboard the Normandy Jeff. I have analyzed all available information. I do not know how to help." EDI's synthesized female voice almost sounded apologetic for being unable to solve a problem only she had seemed to notice. The ship AI's closing statement was so straightforward that Joker found himself in a very rare moment in his life where he didn't know how to respond. The idea that an Artificial Intelligence, a machine, wanted Sarah Shepard to feel better was beyond him.

"Then again," Joker thought to himself quickly, "This IS EDI... who knows whats going on in that reaper box of hers... I guess I should just be glad she's worried about Shepard and not out to space all of us in our sleep." The thought made him shiver slightly as he decided what to say aloud. "Well, mom," he took on a patriarchal but joking tone as he wagged a finger at EDI's image. "I can't give you a straight answer to a weird question like that either. All I can think of is that the Commander got even grouchier ever since since she met up with Liara T'soni... If you're that worried about it then why don't you find Shepard a reason to go talk to the asari again. That'd probably cheer her up. Liara did say that she was too busy trying to track down the Shadow Broker to even give us the time of day right? See what nasty secrets Cerberus has been keeping from us about the Shadow Broker and go from there... agh!" Joker cut himself off as he suddenly focused on the voice coming through the comm channel.

"Joker! Shadow what? Stop daydreaming and get that damn shuttle down here now before we get buried in krogan! They don't know the base is set to blow!" The commanding and clearly stressed voice of Sarah Shepard caught Joker's full attention and he waved off EDI.

While the humans continued their work EDI processed her conversation and began to act on Joker's advice. By using the quantum entanglement communicator, EDI accessed the Illusive Man's personal network. Employing her full range of cyber attack capabilities she scoured the data-banks of her former master in mere minutes. Making use of the open connection, she began downloading selective data to the Normandy until she located the information she had been searching for. Sparing brief moments to properly organize the the data for organic viewing she flagged it to Shepard's personal terminal. In as much a way as a machine can feel hope, EDI began to calculate the probability of a positive reaction to her efforts. Re-displaying her image on the bridge of the Normandy, the ship AI waited patiently for a pause in the communication between her Helmsman and Commander.

"Roger, shuttle is clear and approach angle is set, we'll see you on board in a few minutes." Joker had just finished his work of moving the Normandy into an intercept course for pickup.

"Thank you Jeff." EDI interjected herself smoothly.

"Uhh, yeah, sure no problem EDI, anytime... not sure what I did though..." Joker shrugged to himself as EDI's bridge display switched off. She now acted to notify her commander of the forwarded data

"Commander," EDI broadcast her voice into Sarah Shepard's personal subdermal comm unit. "I have forwarded relevant data to your quarters regarding a subject you may find to be of concern. Please review it. However, be aware that it is very sensitive and open discussion should be limited." EDI finished with a hint of seriousness.

"Thanks EDI... I think..." Shepard's tired acknowledgement betrayed a calculated curiosity as her interest piqued. What could be so sensitive that EDI wouldn't even discuss it over her personal channel she wondered. Then the sharp pain in her right side reminded her of the gunshot she had taken through her suit. A krogan had gotten off a round from his shotgun up close. She had dodged most of it but with her shields down, several peices of shrapnel were buried in her right side. What she hadn't noticed until now was that her hardsuit's medigel supply was empty. She blithely reminded herself that between all the commotion since returning from the Omega 4 relay and their unscheduled detour to a blood pack facility, she had forgotten to do maintenance duty on her own armor.

"A rookie's mistake..." Sarah admonished herself quietly.

Pulling open the side latches of her Aegis combat hardsuit, the Specter couldn't help but groan in pain. 'Sure the pain is rough' she thought to herself, 'but at least I'm not a bit of grey plasma contributing to the left ass cheek of a humanoid reaper.' A half smile creased her face as she finished the thought. To her right, Grunt pounded his large, trunk-like fists together and let out a triumphant laugh as an explosion flared on the planet's surface, confirming detonation of the Blood Pack base. She didn't see Garrus seated across from her toss his rifle aside and move at surprising speed to grab her as she rolled sideways on the seat. Her half-opened chestplate revealing a trail of blood running down the skin tight black bodysuit that made up the inner layer of her armor.

"Shepard!" Garrus' worried cry was choked only by his turian need for composure. His small reptillian eyes blinked hard for a minute to fight back his emotions. The slightly elongated 'thumb' of his right hand touched her chin as his only two finger's pressed into her neck, feeling for a pulse. He had already wrapped his left arm around Sarah to keep her sitting up, her head resting on the shoulder of his combat hardsuit as he kneeled down next to her. Grunt had already turned his hulking figure towards the pair and a frown crossed his broad, lizard-like face.

"Garrus? Damn this hurts a little more than usual and you look worried... what'd I miss?" Sarah's usually confident voice was shaken and weak even as she did her best to sound casual.

"Just don't try to move right now... Damn it Shepard I warned you about that Krogran before he got the shot off." Garrus found himself clenching his fist out of a mixture of worry and anger. Not heeding his advice, Sarah straightened herself and brushed free of his hold. Her eyes darted from Garrus to Grunt quickly as if looking for something and for a moment, Garrus wondered if she was experiencing some type of human stress response. Sarah fought back the urge to close her eyes as she found a focal point in front of her and stared, drawing in labored, pained breaths and letting them out to regain her focus.

With Scottish and Japanese heritage giving her pale skin, fiery red hair and gently rounded yet elegant features, Sarah Shepard was a human that even Garrus found appealing. He was familiar with the wide range of human female appearances, and had decided that his Commander was comparable if not more appealing than most of the human fashion models and glamor actresses he had glanced over on the extranet. Her emerald green eyes seemed to stare out past the bulkhead of the shuttle and the turian worried that she was slipping into unconsciousness before she snapped back to look at Garrus directly.

"Guess I was little careless back there." As her face cracked into an almost whimsical grin to try and hide the pain, she seemed to somehow exude a sereneness that reminded Garrus of the feeling he got around most asari. "Better come up with a good story for why this happened or else Tali will never let me live it down..." Garrus paused as Grunt began to roughly close up Sarah's hardsuit, causing her to breath in sharply and shut her eyes in pain. The krogan didn't seem to notice as he finished, slapping a replacement medigel canister into the backplate of his Battlemaster's armor. Grunt still wasn't used to dealing with humans.

"Be more careful with her she's not krogran!" Garrus snapped harshly at Grunt, his reptilian eyes narrowing visibly.

Grunt only snorted in affirmation, having learned long ago that Garrus' tantrums had nothing to do with anything but his strange obsession with Shepard. For a turian, Garrus was a good fighter and that earned him at least a small measure of respect from Grunt so the krogan never bothered to take offense.

"EDI," Shepard coughed, hiding a spray of blood from her mouth in her palm as she straightened herself. She pushed out of Garrus' grip absently as her hardsuit began it's work of applying medigel to seal up the wound in her side. "What's the data about? Can't you give me a hint at least?"

"It is data I determined you would most likely want to present to Doctor T'soni." EDI attempted to keep the topic as vague as possible.  
>"Liara..." Sarah stiffened visibly and stood up, all signs of combat fatigue washing away as a distant look came over her face. Brushing a bit of her chin length, straight red hair out of her eye she moved slowly to stare out the shuttle window. Closing her eyes, Sarah thought back to the endless wait leading up to the Omega 4 jump. She remembered spending a long time staring at the one holo-image she had of the young asari doctor, an image they had taken on Noveria. She had been trying to think about what to tell Liara before they made the Omega 4 jump. In the end the message Sarah wrote was never sent because she 'wasn't ready to say goodbye' she had told herself. When they made it back to normal space however, she had ordered this detour to avoid returning to Illium.<p>

"The asari..." Garrus thought to himself, his eyes closing. There had been quite a few times that he had let himself wonder what might have happened if they had never met Liara T'soni on Therum. He knew that Shepard secretly had feelings for the asari, more than she would ever publicly acknowledge. He also knew that seeing Liara on Illium had screwed his commander up faster and more completely than Sovereign, Harbringer, or any number of Reapers could ever hope to. Shepard deserved better than that he thought to himself. He owed her his life and more. What passed for a small grin creased his leathery face as he remembered thinking that he must be hallucinating when he first saw her alive back on Omega. She had been careful to hide while moving through the mercs that were assaulting him but he caught glimpses of her in his scope. He had wondered if he was really seeing a vision of a death spirit coming to end the fighting. They both had shared a good laugh about it later.

"I'll look at it when I get back on the ship. Tell Joker to set a course for Illium as soon as we're aboard." Sarah's voice was flat and distant. She barely heard the protests from both Garrus and EDI as they simultaneously tried to tell their Commander that visiting Doctor Chakwas should be her top priority.

* * *

><p>************ Nos Astra Blues ************<p>

* * *

><p>"...And in other news, we take another look at the mysterious return of Commander Sarah K. Shepard, Council Specter. What has she been doing? Where has she been? Why is she surrounding herself with murderers and criminals? All that and more..." The holo image was cut short as Liara T'soni absently switched off the display, turning her attention back to the console at her desk and it's scrolling display of text. She had just received confirmation from a source on Omega. A vessel matching the description of the Normandy had been monitored approaching the Omega 4 relay by a passing merchant vessel. Somehow the information wouldn't register in her mind and she found herself reading it over and over. The merchant vessel was just a passing ship bound for Omega, there was nothing to indicate the Normandy had returned. Thoughts of worry and dread filled Liara's mind as she felt herself begin to tremble involuntarily. Was Sarah alive? Was she dead... again? Why did she leave without saying goodbye? Liara shook her head and hoped that she hadn't dared say her thoughts out loud.<p>

The last meeting between Liara and Sarah had not gone so well. The pain of the human woman's words still burned freshly in the Liara's mind. She remembered every detail of the woman she loved angrily blaming Liara for handing her body to Cerberus. Liara had tried to reveal the truth about recovering the human Specter's body from Shadow Broker agents. She had pleaded, tried to get Sarah to understand that it was the only choice she had at the time but in the end she could not deny her guilt. Sarah was now in the clutches of one of her many enemies, and there was only Liara to blame. Her mind raced and she shut her deep sapphire eyes to try and fight back the tears as a storm of emotions flared up inside her. Everything had been so much simpler when Sarah was dead. Liara had a purpose, an enemy, and that was all that needed to be important. Now, she could barely resist the urge to drop everything to find a way to contact the Illusive Man. She needed to hear from his mouth directly why Sarah Shepard had gone off to die without even saying goodbye for a second time.

"Miss T'soni?" It was her new assistant Ma'tira. The asari matron had a soothing voice and Liara kept her only as a secretary and receptionist. She made sure to take steps to avoid having another Nyxeris situation.

"Yes Ma'tira..." came Liara's strained response as she did her best not to let her emotions show.

"Apparently... you left instructions to be informed if the Normandy registered at any local docking ports, it was just flagged as arriving at a local maintenance dock. I've gone ahead and confirmed payment of their docking fees but it looks like there may be a very large repair bill as well do you want me to.." The asari woman did not get to finish as Liara interjected herself excitedly.

"It what?" Liara could hardly believe what she had heard, "Thank you Ma'tira I'll take care of it myself!" Liara's mind raced, Sarah had come back from the Omega 4 relay? She frantically brought up the relevant information on her own terminal, pouring over it and suddenly feeling her heart leap as surveillance footage of the Normandy at dock appeared. Except, where was Sarah? The surveillance video she had access to did not show anything resembling the red haired human female disembarking the ship even though several others were already exiting the boarding arm. The Normandy itself appeared badly damaged in several places, but there were no serious hull breaches in critical areas. Large rounded holes riddled the cargo bay area on the underside of the ship as if impossibly large projectiles had shot through the sides of the hold without passing into the rest of the ship. Liara said a silent thanks to the Goddess for Joker's profound piloting skills at having so narrowly avoided clearly lethal attacks.

Then Liara caught sight of what she needed and for a moment time seemed to stop. Commander Sarah Shepard, the human Specter that saved her life on Therum was exiting the Normandy alive. They had stolen eachother's hearts the first time they met even if neither of them realized it at the time. The human woman seemed slightly paler than usual, although Liara was familiar with Sarah's Scottish heritage contributing to her appearance. At her side came Garrus, favoring a slight limp and sporting several deep scorch marks in his Cerberus issue turian armor. How Shepard had convinced Garrus Vakarian to work with Cerberus she would never know. Behind Garrus came Tali'Zorah Vas Normandy, Liara had watched and re-watched the footage leaked to her by a quarian contact of Shepard defending Tali'Zorah in trial. The asari maiden could not help but feel some pangs of jealousy for not being the one that had been defended by such powerfully moving words.

Time was moving again and she almost reached through the holo-vid display with a gasp as Sarah faltered. The human woman gingerly favored her right side as she quickly steadied herself, brushing off an almost too quickly offered hand by Garrus. Liara wanted nothing more than to run out of her office, commandeer the nearest taxi, and drive it headlong into the docking bays just to meet Sarah. She had already begun to leave when her terminal flashed, it's display caught her attention as the word Broker appeared among the text. Shutting her eyes for a moment, Liara consciously let go of her feelings as she straightened to her full height of five feet and nine inches. Her sky blue skin seemed to glow for a moment as she used biotics to calm her mind. The edges of her lime green office dress fluttered around her ankles. Reverting back into her persona of level headed information trader, Liara returned calmly to her desk. After making a few quick commands the displays relating to the Normandy closed. Her attention given over to the new information, reading intently and forcing herself to ignore the distractions. She had to focus on her target. More importantly, she reminded herself, the Broker would go after anyone or anything he thought was important to her and she couldn't let Sarah become a target.

* * *

><p>************ Bad Timing ************<p>

* * *

><p>It was not until an hour later that Liara noticed the chime from her secretary, denoting that a visitor was about to enter. Liara stood, trying to maintain her composure as she could feel the presence of Sarah Shepard behind the door. The connection that had developed between them after their joining was not something either could deny. Liara took in a breath and fought down her emotions, straining to keep her composure. The door slid open smoothly and Shepard stood there, a hand pressed to her right side but her confident tomboyish grin firmly in place. As usual, She was wearing her Aegis hardsuit, complete with an array of weapons that made her stand out in a civilian setting. While the armor offered superior protection and mobility, Liara couldn't help but blush inwardly at how nicely it accentuated the curves of the human woman's body.<p>

Shepard's face was now visibly paler than normal. Liara could even see freshly formed scar tissue cutting harshly at an angle across Sarah's right cheek, marring her otherwise nearly perfect features. Behind Shepard, Garrus came into the office and his own hardsuits fresh combat damage was clearly visible. He also sported a pair of burns similar to Shepard's which ran across the top of his angled head close to his fringe in addition to the older scars that covered the right side of his face. He seemed to be staring Liara down, or was she just imagining things? Garrus had not been the same ever since the destruction of the Normandy and turians were all a little strange to her. Even Tali'Zorah appeared to have seen heavy combat as her suit was clearly damaged in several places, quick patches had been applied but scorch marks were visible under the mismatched patch material.

"Shepard! It's good to see you again." Liara managed lamely, trying her best to remain professional. "A-are you all right? All of you look as if you've just been through another attack on the citadel."

"Something like that..." Sarah nodded casually as she approached Liara, a datapad in her hand.

"Is there something I can help you with? Are you looking for someone?" Liara offered helpfully, looking for some way to avoid the real topic on her mind.

"No, actually, I'm here to help you.." Sarah's voice was calm but forceful. She was now standing only a foot away from Liara and the proximity of the two was generating a nearly unbearable heat for the Asari. She could almost touch Sarah's mind even though they weren't in physical contact.

"I still say this can wait." Garrus interjected himself harshly, his voice agitated.

"Shepard?" Liara looked questioningly at the human woman, her sapphire blue eyes searching the Spectre's emerald green.

"Don't worry about Garrus, he's just mad that we haven't properly celebrated yet." Sarah waved a hand at Garrus dismissively. "Look, I know you've been hunting the Shadow Broker," Sarah's face was suddenly the solid mask of determination that Liara found so familiar. "Cerberus had some information I think you'll want to see... here." She held up the datapad for Liara who took it almost immediately, she looked over the information intently.

"Shepard I... where did you get this?" Liara was quiet, almost shocked as she began to make sense of what was in front of her.

"I told you, Cerberus had it... now you do... It didn't make much sense to me... but I thought I'd run it by you." She was trying to be casual about the whole thing Liara noticed.

"It's a leaked transmission... some navigational data and... Feron!" Liara's gasp was audible as Sarah visibly recoiled, unnoticed by the Asari.

"It's about Feron, Shepard, he's alive." Liara's voice was excited, almost frantic.

"Is he your friend? The one that helped recover my body from the Shadow broker?" Sarah asked, trying to hide her discomfort at Liara's clearly emotional reaction.

"Yes, the same." Liara nodded curtly. "He sacrificed himself to save me... I... never found anything suggesting he was alive." The hope that crept into Liara's voice seemed to physically burn Sarah's mind. "After two years... I hadn't even dreamed..." Liara turned away to stare out of the window wall of her office, across the cityscape of Nos Astra that stretched before her.

"If he's been the Broker's prisoner for two years he may not be in very good shape Liara." Sarah offered cautiously, her voice hinting at the darker implications.

Frowning darkly, Liara turned heatedly towards Sarah, her elegant fingers clenching on the datapad."Don't you think I know that? Yesterday Feron was gone and all I wanted was the chance to avenge his death! Today he is alive... and I might be able to rescue him! I'll do whatever it takes to get him back." There was a cold determination in Liara's sapphire blue eyes that was only accentuated by the neon backdrop of her window office. Sarah found herself taken aback, almost hurt at the determination in her one time lover's manner. What she said next was almost involuntary.

"You've been looking for him for almost two years..." Her eyes cast down to the ground, unable to meet Liara's directly. "You and Feron must be close."

"It's funny..." Liara couldn't help but let a wry smile crack her youthful features. "He betrayed me more than once... he was double dealing behind my back... for Cerberus, for the Shadow Broker... but in the end he sacrificed himself for me... I owe him my life." As she finished Liara turned away again, staring back out of the window. Behind her Sarah reached out a hand tentatively while taking a step forward but then bit her lip and turned her head away. Dropping her hand to her side, the human Specter regained her composure and adopted a parade rest stance.

"Liara anyone who means this much to you is obviously important... and besides... any friend of yours is a friend of mine... what do you want to do?" Sarah did her best to keep her voice calm and re-assuring. Near the entrance to Liara's office, Garrus and Tali who had been trying to keep themselves out of the way, could tell that these few minutes were harder on their commander than wading through an army of Collectors or Reapers would ever be.

"I don't know I... I need time to think about this... time to plan but not here. Goddess we may have said too much already here..." Liara's eyes suddenly cast about fearfully as she grabbed a display frame bearing what looked like dog tags off of her desk before moving past Sarah hurriedly towards the door. " I need to go to my apartment.." Liara stated absently, her mind already working too far ahead to be bothered with the present anymore.

"Are you ok?" Sarah asked gently. The simple question made Liara pause to regather her thoughts.

"I've spent two years plotting revenge, and now I have a chance to make it a rescue. I need to get him back." Liara allowed her resolve to deepen. The idea that Liara must be in love with Feron filled Sarah's mind and her whole body tensed as she fought to stop herself from blurting out the question.

"Let me help, I'll come by your apartment later." Sarah offered hopefully, not wanting to leave it at this.

"I... okay... thank you, Sarah." Liara had stopped at the doorway to her office, a weak smile played across her blue face and her eyes seemed softened. For a moment, she was again the young shy Doctor that Sarah had fallen in love with. It was the first time since her revival that Sarah Shepard heard her own first name coming out of Liara's mouth. In that moment, all the feelings and emotions came rushing back up to the front of her mind and she felt herself slipping as she lost her composure. She watched as Liara's face turned to a look of worried shock. She felt Garrus and Tali both taking hold of her as she tried to lay back. She was floating, like a burden was being lifted and all she had to do was close her eyes. Then, the voice that had dragged her through two years of hell called out, and Sarah knew that her only option would be fighting her way back.

"Sarah! What... what's going on?" Liara's voice was frantic as she lost her own composure, standing frozen in the doorway.

"We need to get her back to the ship, she's still got internal injuries from the... from our last mission." Garrus snapped at Liara angrily but cut himself short as he looked out the window.

"The Collectors?" Liara almost whispered the question fearfully. Tali was on her feet and contacting Joker to have the shuttle brought directly to them. She was busy explaining how they couldn't waste time on taxis and arguing the logistics of launching a shuttle from a maintenance dock.

"That's part of it..." Garrus' voice grated heavily and his eyes narrowed as he looked back at Liara. "We were headed back to Illium anyway when she ordered a detour to a Blood Pack base in a nearby system... Shepard thought it would be a good way for some of us to wind down... you know, kill a few krogan, blow off steam, try to forget the horrors we had just seen.." Garrus found himself unconsciously gripping Shepard tighter as he looked down at the human female he was supporting. "She's been getting careless T'soni, taking risks, getting injured... and this time a krogan's shotgun nearly ended it. Barring Cerberus deciding to rebuild her again of course.." Garrus looked up and somehow even his reptile-like turian features managed an accusatory glare. It was as if he was silently telling Liara that this was all her fault. Somehow she was responsible for putting Sarah at risk and getting her hurt. Before she could open her mouth in question or reply, Tali cut them off.

"Joker and EDI are working to bring the shuttle just outside, on the rooftop, we'll need to hurry with the pickup so that Nos Astra security doesn't start asking questions." The mouthpiece on Tali's faceplate flashed in time with her voice. Through the light blue haze inside of Tali's face-mask, Liara thought she could see the look of worry in the quarian's large oval eyes.

"Is there anything I can do?" Liara asked helplessly, suddenly feeling so far removed from the Normandy and it's crew that it shook her and sent a chill through her body.

"You've done enough already," Tali snapped curtly as she moved to help Garrus stand their Commander upright, the human woman was clearly in poor shape but regaining consciousness.

"Liara... we'll.." Sarah managed weakly.

"Shepard, don't try to talk." It was Garrus who cut her off as he and Tali carried the human between them towards the nearby hallway elevator.

Letting out a deep sigh as they reached the elevator, Tali turned to face Liara who was still rooted in the doorway of her office, unsure what to do. Tali's mouthpiece flashed as she spoke.

"She suffered an abdomen wound from a krogan's shotgun. She didn't even give Doctor Chakwas time to look at it before locking herself in her cabin to obsess over THIS data! She ordered Joker to get us here as quickly as possible. I don't know what has happened to you these past two years and right now, I truly do not care, we need to make sure that our Captain is safe. Give us the information for your apartment and we will meet you there when we can." Tali's cold, matter-of-fact tone said it all. It explained the look in Garrus' eyes and the treatment she had recieved. In a flash, it made sense to Liara and it only served to drive her deeper into a sense of helplessness. They were blaming her for Shepard's condition.

"I see... please do what you can for her... here," Liara brought up her omni-tool and sent some data to Tali. "That's the information for my apartment, I... please just take care of her first."

"Take care of her?" It was Garrus' turn to snap as he spun his head around, almost jerking Shepard around with him. "She won't LET us take care of her! Ever since we touched down on this rock two months ago she's brought a death wish into every firefight we've been in. Soon it's going to catch up to her. If anyone needs to take care of her I think it's you T'soni. I know that living for such a long time can mean you Asari tend to take longer to get things done but this isn't something that can wait anymore. Don't worry, we'll get her back on her feet... that doesn't mean she wont keep trying to put them in the ground." Garrus was visibly shaking now and Liara almost thought she could see a tear behind the ever present combat visor covering his left eye.

Without any more words, Garrus and Tali carried their Commander into the now waiting elevator and disapeared. Liara was trembling and didn't know what to do. Then one word shot through her mind and she snapped back into reality.

"Feron." She reminded herself, and broke into a run for the skycar terminal. She would make sure the data Sarah brought her was put to good use, she had to.

* * *

><p>************ Rushing Blind ************<p>

* * *

><p>It was nearly a full day before Sarah regained consciousness, and she almost immediately wished she hadn't. The over bright lights of the Normandy's medical bay forced her eyes shut as a pain shot through her head. Her pale, slightly rounded but elegant features contorted in a grimace as she tried twice to sit up. She succeeded the second time through force of will. Brushing some of her loose hair out of her face she looked around, trying to make sense of where she was.<p>

"Take it easy Commander... you've had a rough night. The next time you get shot like that and don't immediately come to see me, I may just have to let you die." it was the gently teasing voice of Doctor Chakwas. The older human woman was the closest thing Sarah had had to a mother in a long time and she knew not to argue. Instead she laid back onto the medical station and kept her eyes closed, trying to just recollect her thoughts. Then, realization hit her and her eyes shot open, the pain from the lights forgotten as she forced herself upright.

"I'm all right doc, really... I just need a few minutes. How long was I out?" Sarah did her best to sound her usual confident self.

"Most of the day I would say... you lost quite a bit of blood considering that it took you a bit of time to finally even apply medigel... according to your hardsuit records. To top it off, you didn't even bother coming to see me once you'd returned to the ship. I know there is an absolutely stellar reason you did this Shepard but I just can't..." The older woman was already charging headlong into one of her motherly lectures but Sarah had no time for it.

"It's Liara... Doctor T'soni... has anything happened to her?" Sarah worried that with a full day already gone Liara may have tried something on her own.

"Not that I've heard... do you mean to tell me that the best reason you can give me for not getting a wound this serious properly treated is that you simply had no time for it during our flight to Illium to see an information broker who has a permanent office above one of the most heavily protected trading floors in Nos Astra? Thats not like you at all... is everything all right?" a hint of sincere worry was creeping into the doctor's voice.

Pushing herself onto the ground Sarah did her best to remain steady as she tested her body and it's reactions. "No... it's not all right, you're right doc, and so was Garrus, I should've waited." She said more to herself than to Doctor Chakwas.

"Well at the very least we can thank Cerberus and that miraculous Frankenstein body they've given you." Chakwas mused sarcastically. "Thanks to the rapid healing nature of your tissue it was easy to get you stabilized once we had the shrapnel taken care of. It looks like you should be fine but I still recommend another few days rest before any more active gun fighting. Try to be gentle on your right side most importantly. I do have some bad news though..." she sighed heavily as she turned her back on Shepard, leaning over her desk and picking up a datapad before turning back to face her patient. "I'm afraid that even with your bio-synthetic skin and rapid healing there will be some permanent scarring where you suffered collector particle beam contact, specifically your right cheek. You're lucky that it only grazed you. I suppose we could look into tissue replacement if you'd like." Doctor Chakwas sounded apologetic as she delivered the news.

"That's it?" Sarah almost laughed the question as she stood upright, at five feet eleven inches she was not the tallest or most imposing person, especially in her Cerberus issue ship fatigues. "Thanks for the care doc but I have a job to do and it can't wait. Keep the med bay ready and make sure you brush up on your asari physiology since I know Samara didn't give you much chance to." Shepard was again the commanding officer of the Normandy and she had a mission. Sure it was personal, she told herself, sure she was about to use the full resources of the Normandy to do it but it didn't matter anymore. For her, this was about Liara, and she wasn't about to lose any more time than she already had.

Shaking her head, Doctor Chakwas couldn't help but smile as she watched her commanding officer departing the medical bay striding purposefully towards the ship elevator. She could also hear EDI's voice starting up a conversation with Shepard as she moved. Turning back to her console, the doctor did as she was asked, although she had a feeling that the Commander's request had been focused on one very specific asari. There had always been a running rumor regarding the relationship between Sarah Shepard and Liara T'soni but no one had ever dared broach the subject to Shepard directly for fear of loss of limbs. Even if it did seem a little strange to the doctor that a human female would be in love with an asari, it didn't bother her much at all. She was just happy to see a burning determination in Sarah's eyes again. Like the others, she had easily noticed the change in attitude ever since their original visit to Illium. With an unconscious smirk on her face, the doctor set about her work, making sure that the Normandy's medical bay was ready to handle whatever emergency might occur.

"You're sure that Liara's okay?" Sarah asked EDI while stepping out of the ship elevator into her cabin.

"There is no way for me to be certain Shepard. However she is not in her office and I can find no reports relating to her death or injury." EDI's reply was as direct and matter of fact as ever.

"You're right... okay just... Tell Garrus and Thane I'm going to need them prepped and ready to be on the ground in 10, get a cab ready to meet us at the ship's docking bay too. We need to get to her apartment and we'll go from there." Sarah's mind was working quickly as she mechanically stripped down out of her ship fatigues and pulled out one of several bodysuits from a rack in a storage bay.

"Garrus is already here commander. Do you still want me to tell him?" Sarah couldn't help but think she heard amusement in EDI's voice, was that even possible she wondered.

Whirling to face the door, Sarah Shepard found herself standing stark naked except for one ankle still caught up in her fatigues. In the doorway of her cabin was Garrus, looking every bit as embarrassed and flustered as a turian could manage. He was making a point of trying to keep his eyes anywhere but ahead of him with only marginal success. Letting out an audible sigh and shaking her head, Sarah finished kicking off the fatigues and got ready to slip on the bodysuit that made up the bottom layer of her combat armor. Realizing Garrus was still there and making a point of fidgeting she put a hand to her hip and titled her head to the side, a playful smirk on her face.

"You know Garrus, in human society the male turns around as a courtesy if he happens to catch a female dressing." The words were pointedly direct but still teasing.

"Ah... right... sorry Commander..." Sparing another quick look towards Shepard, Garrus turned around and locked his eyes on the elevator's interface. "I came to make sure you're all right... Chakwas said you were already up and now I hear you telling EDI we're going ground side again? Don't you think you need to give yourself a little rest first?"

For a few moments Garrus didn't hear anything and he fought the urge to look behind him. The image of Shepard like that was not an easy thing to get out of his head. The idea that he was a terrible turian filled his mind.

"Garrus, get inside the room, EDI, shut the door and give me confirmation that all monitoring is disabled." Sarah's voice was firm and all Garrus had to do was take a step back before the cabin door shut in his face.

"Done Shepard." EDI's voice informed smoothly.

"This CAN'T wait Garrus... you heard Liara... her friend is alive. What's worse, now there's been a whole day where anyone who was eavesdropping on that office knows at the very least we have a lead. I need everyone's help on this but I need yours most of all... we're dealing with the Shadow Broker and I'm... I'm worried that Liara's in over head." Suddenly Sarah Shepard was a vulnerable human female imploring one of the only beings in the galaxy she called a friend for help. Garrus found himself powerless to do anything but glance back slightly and nod his head. All of the arguments he had been ready to throw at his Commander for why she needed to stay died away.

"Why all the secrecy aboard the Normandy then?" Garrus asked pointedly.

It was EDI's turn to interject and she did so before Sarah could even finish opening her mouth. "The Illusive man has a vested interest in ensuring stability of the Shadow Broker's network, he did not want Shepard to obtain this data. If he were aware of this situation then complications may arise."

"That and..." Sarah took a deep breath. "Garrus I haven't actually told anyone else this but I'm telling you... and EDI since she's listening... I love Liara Garrus... I can't let anything happen to her and that's why I need your help on this." Sarah was standing next to her armor locker in her black form fitting body suit now, her emerald eyes boring deep into Garrus as he turned to look at her.

"I see... that kind of admission could ruin the image of the first human Specter back home." Garrus nodded in understanding. He was all too familiar with the political tightrope Shepard had always negotiated in regards to her relation with aliens.. "You didn't even have to ask... Sarah." It was highly irregular for Garrus to use Shepard's first name. "You know I'd follow you into hell and back if you asked, in fact I think I already did more than once. I'm happy to help."

"Me as well Shepard, this information will not leave my core databanks and you will always have any assistance you need from me, you are my Captain." EDI's voice sounded almost re-assuring, as if she wanted Sarah to feel better. Smiling to herself, Sarah turned back to her armor locker and began putting on her spare Aegis hardsuit.

"Thank you Garrus, you too EDI. Tell Thane to get prepped. We'll be moving out soon and I don't want to waste any more time than I have. Dismissed."

Standing fully upright, Garrus felt his chest puff out with pride at knowing that the most dangerous warrior he had ever known needed his help. With a barely audible hiss the door behind him slid open and he whirled smartly in turian military style, crossing the small hallway that separated Shepard's cabin from the ship elevator. Unseen behind him, Sarah was watching him leave with a grin on her face.

"Pervert" she whispered under her breath with a laugh as she finished suiting up.

Rain was falling in Nos Astra for a second day, not too hard but enough to offer a low hanging cloud cover and dismal endless drizzle. The rain made the neon lights and holoprojecter's flare up all over, giving a luminescent glow to the city as lightning cracked across the overhead clouds. Liara T'soni's apartment was in an upper class area of town not far from her office. Before their skycar even touched down however, Sarah could feel something was wrong. Illium law enforcement vehicles were parked outside, several of them. Exiting their taxi, Garrus, Thane, and Sarah moved at a quick pace to get out of the rain. Once they were inside the building they took the hallway elevator up to Liara's apartment.

"Perhaps now there is time enough for even a small briefing." Thane's raspy Drell voice broke the drone of the elevator music and caused Sarah to start as she turned to look at him. She always found it a little unsettling looking at a Drell's eyes. They were pitch black with barely visible pupils of a dark grey. She always thought they were hard to focus on and it felt like she was staring down a giant grasshopper with a humanoid face.

"Protect Liara T'soni... thats all the briefing I can give you right now... that and just follow my lead... as usual." She said the last with the playful grin that Thane had become accustomed to and he simply nodded in affirmation.

"Interesting that you bring an assasin along for a mission of protection but... as you say Shepard." Thane kept his words short and pointed, his usual style.

"Tali's not ready for a fight yet and Samara has already left, you're the only one I can count on for this Thane... Grunt is too noisy and the others..."

"Are possibly Cerberus." Thane finished the thought quickly with a nod of his head.

Sarah nodded her head as she was reminded how empty the ship already felt with Mordin, Samara, Jack, and Kasumi gone. Legion was still on the ship but she was not willing to put the machine at risk until they had a chance to allow him to re-integrate his experiences with the rest of his 'species'. Zaeed had demanded they dock at Omega just so he could get off but Jack and Mordin had slipped away too. The mercenary's exact quote had been: "I've done what I was goddamned paid for Shepard, I was part of your team now I'm going after Vido." Things had been heated between them on Zorya but he was due credit for keeping up his end of the bargain. After Sarah showed him the value of being a teammate instead of a deadman, he had agreed to do his job right. The others didn't give much of a goodbye but Mordin was worried about his clinic and Jack was done with Cerberus regardless of Shepard's personal stance on the organization. Samara and Kasumi had left as soon as they docked on Illium.

"What opposition are we expecting?" Thane asked, more out of curiosity than any real concern.

"I have no idea... that's why I brought the best." Sarah grinned to herself as she spoke towards the front of the elevator.

"A fair point." Thane tilted his head to the side in acceptance as a small smile cracked Garrus' normally stony face.

The elevator slid to a stop and the doors moved apart silently. The three stepped out into a wide, well lit hallway and made their way down it. When they found Liara's apartment door open and an Asari detective outside Sarah began to quicken her step. She felt a twist in her guts as she tried with all of her willpower to resist just running headlong into the apartment and shouting for Liara. From inside she could hear the conversations of several Asari and Turian investigators, members of the planetary security force.

"Ahh control? We've got an open carrier on this end... switching to a coded relay." A turian investigator was saying as they walked up to the doorway.

Sarah stepped up to the edge of a holo barrier just inside the apartment, looking around. The asari detective turned to address the three, holding her hand up in an official manner with her other hand on the handle of a holstered pistol.

"I'm sorry ma'am but this area's been sealed off, no one is allowed inside." The asari addressed Sarah.

"Sealed off? Why?" a sense of urgency was building inside Sarah even as she glanced quickly around the apartment, hunting for any sign of a body.

The asari seemed like she was about to wave off Sarah again when a confident, smooth female voice cut into the conversation.

"Someone tried to kill your friend Commander Shepard." It belonged to an asari that was of late maiden or early matron age. She was wearing what looked liked customized biotic amp armor fitted with specialized plating to give better protection while not limiting movement. The dark blue and white trim of the armor only seemed to accentuate the deep blue of her skin. Sarah noticed what she was sure was a Spectre issue battle rifle mounted on the backplate of the armor and her eyebrow raised slightly. The asari moved gracefully, almost in a gliding motion, down the wide curving steps that led to Liara's lofted bedroom area. As she reached the bottom of the steps she shifted her gaze from Sarah to the asari detective that had been trying to keep the human away.

"Thank you officer your team is dismissed." She said matter of factly, waving a hand dismissively while adopting a very arrogant and almost snobbish demeanor.

"But... you can't do that!" The asasri detective countered insistently.

"Already done Lieutenant..." The new arrival stared pointedly at the detective, her eyes narrowing.

As if biting back the urge to continue the argument the detective let out an audible snort of disapproval before signalling to her team of investigators to leave the apartment. Sarah and her teammates entered and approached the waiting asari. Sarah turned briefly and signalled to Thane and Garrus to stand watch.

"I'm sorry for the late introduction Commander... Tela Vasir, Special Tactics and Reconnisance." She finished the statement with no small measure of pride, almost as if she were announcing a rare pedigree that demanded it's due admiration.

"A Spectre..." Sarah nodded, confirming what she had guessed from seeing the rifle.

"Yes... I was notified that your status was reinstated... that's good" Tela paused for a brief moment, changing her posture slightly and almost seeming to narrow her eyes. "You're one of our most famous operatives... might even get you to sign my chestplate."

"What's a spectre doing investigating a crime scene on Illium?" Sarah asked pointedly.

"I could ask you the same thing Commander... I was asked to keep an eye on Doctor T'soni, she was a savior of the citadel after all and the daughter of a powerful matriarch. I take it you had business with her this late in the evening?" Tela's tone became almost accusatory and Sarah decided a change of approach might help move things along.

"Liara was following up a lead on the Shadow Broker... she asked me to meet her here as soon as I could but I got delayed." The vauge truth seemed like the best approach for the moment.

"The Shadow Broker..." Tela made it more of a statement than a question, "That's a dangerous enemy to have."

"What are the facts so far?" Sarah asked impatiently.

"About 25 minutes ago someone took a shot at T'soni, note the bullet holes." Tela motioned behind her nonchelantly to several plainly visible bullet holes in the thick glass of the apartment's large window wall. The window looked out across Nos Astra and Sarah caught herself wishing she had seen the view under better circumstances. "T'soni stayed in the building for almost 4 minutes before leaving... whatever she was doing must have been important." There was a hint of bitterness in the words that Sarah missed, she was too distracted worrying about Liara to have time for anything else.

"If Liara's not here now... where is she?" Sarah asked hopefully, shifting her position slightly as she turned back to face the asari Spectre.

"If I knew that I wouldn't still be sifting through her crap." Tela snorted derisvely, almost as if the human had just insulted her intelligence with such a question. "There's no blood, no body, it looks like T'soni got away. I guess the sniper didn't count on her kinetic barrier... She's a clever girl. Paranoid... but clever." Tela was almost talking to herself at the last but Sarah was busy checking the shot impacts in the glass and comparing the angles to where Liara must have been standing. No blood spatters, no visible shot impacts... Tela was right, a kinetic barrier must have stopped the shots she thought to herself. She found relief welling up in her as she silently thanked Liara for being so cautious that she wore a kinetic barrier in her own home.

"Did the police find anything?" Sarah asked hurriedly. Not really expecting anything helpful.

"Just the mess and the bullet holes... I gave them a gold star for finding the bullet holes." The sarcasm in the Asari's voice was obvious.

Turning back to face Vasir, who was still standing impassively by the staircase, Sarah sighed and forced her mind back into combat mode, she had to stay focused.

"Liara was expecting me, she would have left a note somewhere... her office wasn't safe and she knew it." Sarah stated pointedly.

Tela snorted and a grin creased her otherwise superior demeanor. "I'm not surprised, Illium is just Omega with expensive shoes." the Asari shifted her stance slightly again as her attitude became serious. "I haven't found anything useful for tracking her down yet. You know T'soni better than I do, where would she have hidden a note like that?"

"Let me take a look around... Garrus, Thane see if you can find anything." Sarah's mind began working quickly. A goal was just what she needed to keep herself from worrying. Before she could even start searching however, a glass display stand in the corner of Liara's living room area caught her eye. Walking up to the display she put a hand out and ran it along the glass, suddenly lost in thought as she stared at the contents.

"Something you recognize Commander?" Tela asked hopefully from behind her.

Shaking herself out of the memories Sarah looked back. "It's part of my old armor..."

"Well... looks like someone didn't like you much either." Tela commented dryly.

It was true, the armor on display had been part of the same hardsuit Sarah had died in. In a way, this was a peice of her coffin, of her. She had another peice of the armor herself in her cabin, the helmet. The piece in the display case was the backplate. It still protruded part of the airhose that had ruptured when the Normandy was destroyed. For a moment, Sarah had a flashback of the suffocating nightmare that had been her death two years ago. Jerking her hand away quickly she turned from the display and again, memories sprang up to greet her. Hidden from the entranceway in a small common room that doubled as a gallery was a large painting. The painting showed a very familiar scene of a bunker overgrown by ageless roots with a stream cutting it's own path through the foundation of a street. Sarah caught her breath as she recognized the painting and the world it represented. Memory overwhelmed her and she had to steady herself even as she moved in a trance like walk towards the work of art.

"Yeah... that's not the Asari homeworld..." Tela said with disinterest. "I'm not sure WHAT planet that is..."

"It's Ilos..." Sarah knew, and she knew what had happened, both before and after her visit to Ilos. Among other things that had been the day that she and Liara had first experienced a joining together.

Blinking hard to force herself out of the memory she turned from the painting and found herself facing the stairway to Liara's bedroom area. It seemed as good a place to start looking as anywhere else and she made her way up the wide curving steps to the lofted bedroom. Directly behind the bed a large fishtank made up nearly all of the wall space, offering a gentle blue glow to the surroundings. In passing, an illuminated picture frame on the nightstand caught her eye. A pang of sadness gripped her heart as she realized she was looking at a picture of the original Normandy. It had been taken just over Luna. Liara had asked for the picture as a memory after helping Sarah clear out the Luna military training grounds. Liara, Garrus, and the others had helped Sarah eliminate a rogue VI that had taken control of the complex. Liara had said that a picture of the Normandy in it's local system would be fitting, so Sarah had used a remote probe to take the shot. Moving over to the picture the Spectre picked it up absently, to her surpise, the image immediately changed. Looking at it closely she recognized the prothean dig site from Eden Prime. From behind her, an excited voice broke her concentration.

"It looks like the picture was keyed to your ID, what does it show now?" Tela pressed eagerly.

"A prothean dig site... maybe Liara did leave a message..." Sarah mused, still buried in memories.

"There's a few Prothean looking artifacts around the apartment... lets check them out." Tela said as she moved back down the stairs to inspect sevaral artifacts on display around the apartment. Thane was trying to judge where the shots would have come from while Garrus was checking Liara's office space.

Sarah moved back down the stairs out of the lofted bedroom area and on instinct, ran her hand along the encased prothean artifact at the base of the stairs. The case seemed to hum in acknowledgement of Shepard's ID tag and then a small space in the stand of the display opened, revealing a data disc.

"Vasir, I've found something here."

Moving over to Sarah, Tela's eyes seemed to light up in anticipation. "A backup disc? Let's see what's on it." She grabbed the disc quickly from Sarah and moved into Liara's office space, inserting the disc in a terminal and watching the display intently. After a few moments, an image of a salarian in a business suit appeared on the screen. It looked as if he was answering a call.

"Looks like she recorded a call." Vasir stated curiously.

"What have you got for me Sekat?" Liara's voice was unmistakeable over the terminal's audio system and Sarah involuntarily caught her breath.

"It was tricky, but you paid for the best... I can narrow it down to a cluster, maybe even a system." Although his voice was calm, Sarah's time around Mordin and other Salarians betrayed Sekat's nervous demeanor.

"How soon can you have it?" Liara's voice was rushed, almost excited.

"Couple of hours... meet me at my office, Barria Frontiers in the Dracon trade Center. I gotta say though T'soni you're making me a little nervous, how big is the trouble that can come out of this?" The salarian was clearly worried.

"Relax Sekat I'll see you in a couple of hours." Liara didn't give him any room for argument and the call ended abruptly.

Ending the program, Tela turned to Sarah as if looking for confirmation of what they had just heard.

"Sounds like Liara found something big on the shadow broker." Sarah mused more to herself than to Tela.

"And then someone found her." countered Tela Vasir with the smallest hint of a sneer on her lips. "I know where the Dracon Trade Center is. My car's outside." She motioned to include Garrus and Thane who had been silently observing.

"Let's go." Nodding her approval to her teammates, Sarah turned quickly for the door. She made sure to lock the door to Liara's apartment as they left, earning a dubious look from Tela Vasir.

* * *

><p>************ Musical Chairs ************<p>

* * *

><p>The Dracon trade center was in a very busy part of Nos Astra, shopping malls, popular restraunts and copororate offices were everywhere. High above the ground midway along an arco skyscraper like most of the city, the public skycar terminal jutted out from the rest of the building. Even in the late hours of the Illium nighttime, the district was busy, with constant traffic moving along at a steady pace among the towering buildings of Nos Astra. As their skycar touched down in the public landing area for the trade center, Sarah almost thought she could feel Liara for a moment, like a sharp cry in her mind. Shifting nervously, Sarah waited for the doors to open. She spared a worried glance towards Garrus who was seated next to her and he gave his usual re-assuring nod. Somehow a nod from a Turian seemed more genuine when done right she thought with amusement. A gentle chimed warning broke her musing as the skycar doors finally swung open, letting in a burst of air and the heavy smell of rain.<p>

"The Barria Frontiers office is on the third floor." Tela was informing them casually as they got out. They made their way out of the skycar terminal to a short flight of steps leading to the entrance plaza. There were people still milling about, moving to and from the trade center quickly to get out of the light rain. "Everything's quiet, no alarms, looks like we missed the party." Commented Vasir with a hint of dissapointment. As if on cue, an explosion erupted, shattering the quiet and blowing out the windows of several floors. The force of the explosion knocked both Tela and Sarah off their feet as Garrus and Thane rushed up to help the two stand. Sarah's mind raced as time slowed. Her mental guard dropped and she realized she was screaming her thoughts.

"Liara's in there!" She shouted frantically even as Garrus tried to hold her back..

"This could be... problematic..." commented Thane, the raspy nature of his Drell voice betraying the stress of the situation.

Wiping a bit of loose debris off her chest plate, Tela moved to stand up, nodding in appreciation as Thane offered his hand. Meanwhile Sarah had broken free of Garrus's grip, a wild look in her eyes.

"Whoever did this just took out three floors to make sure T'soni is dead!" Tela said with no small amount of finality. Not allowing herself to give up hope, Sarah only shook her head, dismissing the thought. "I'll take the skycar and work my way down from the top to seal off the building!" Tela called hurriedly . She was already racing back to her vehicle.

"We'll start down here and work our way up! Stay in radio contact!" Sarah shouted back at her.

"Just leave some for me." Tela retorted almost teasingly as the skycar doors shut. The gold sedan lifted with a smooth hum of the engine and headed in a looping arc for the building's roof.

Not wanting to waste another second, Sarah motioned to Garrus and Thane to fall in line. They did so like a well oiled machine, drawing weapons as they took positions to cover eachothers advance. Thane had only been working with them a short time but under Shepard's leadership he had adapted quickly. Sarah could only spare brief seconds to look over the civilians outside as she moved by, none of them seemed to be in serious condition. She knew that asari security forces and medical teams would be on scene soon. No way they missed a blast that large she thought to herself. All around them the sounds of devastation and the screams of victims filled their ears. Then they were in the entrance hallway to the Dracon Trade center and Sarah took in a breath as everything went quiet. To their right side the security checkpoint for the building was dark, she did her best to spare the room a quick glance but could only tell that wherever the gaurd was, he wasn't here. Moving through the small hallway they entered the building lobby. Broken support structures lay haphazardly across the large lobby while several fires burned, filling the ceiling with smoke even as ruptured water pipes spilled their contents into concentrated areas. Several bodies littered the room but no movement was visible from any of them. Then a malfunctioning loudspeaker broke the eerie quiet, a female voice began to advise evacuation of the buliding between faulty audio loops while a second male voice competed for company slogan advertisement. Their first stop was the elevators in a far corner of the lobby. After getting no response from the holo interface Sarah swore under her breath before she turned to see a staircase ahead of her on the opposite wall.

"Vasir, the elevators are down, and it looks like building security is out." Sarah had only just realized the absence of alarms was unusual. She was used to battlefields being quiet before the firefights started.

"No alarms, no police, sounds like a professional hit." Tela confirmed over their comm channel.

"EDI see what you can do about building security. Get me a location on Liara and make sure those people outside get help. If the building security was disabled it may take longer than I thought."

"Very well Shepard. I cannot assist with building security however, nor can I locate Liara T'soni. This building's security systems were not disabled, they were destroyed." EDI's voice sent a chill down Sarah's neck as she thought about the implications of the comment.

By this time she was across the lobby and about to move up the stairs when she spotted a salarian corpse with a Barria frontiers logo on the clothing. Nodding to Garrus was all the signal he needed to check the body. It was quick but he shook his head.

"Doesn't look like Sekat." Garrus commented "But... he is a Barria Frontiers employee... this doesn't look good Shepard."

"Vasir, I've got a Baria Frontiers employee here... looks like he was caught in the explosion." Sarah said grimly.

"I wouldn't place any bets on T'soni's informant surviving that blast." Tela said with a clear hint of confidence in her voice.

Smoke was beginning to cloud the upper ceiling of the lobby and the stairwell as the three moved further into the building. Rounding a corner and reaching the stairwell exit, they were now in an interior plaza area that seemed more like small park to Sarah. Sectionalized plantlife had been placed to add aesthetic value to the area while a small fountain made up the centerpeice. The scene reminded Sarah of the presidium ring of the citadel and again she felt a knot twist in her stomach as her worry for Liara grew. Then the knot became fire as she caught sight of a human security gaurd slumping over against a wall near the large open stairway that would lead them to the third floor and the Barria Frontiers office.

"Mercs... came out of the smoke... planting bombs..." The security gaurd was already dead by the time Sarah got to him, he had given up his dying breath trying to warn anyone he could. Looking him over quickly, Sarah knew he he was right. The guard had several impact wounds from high velocity rounds and several more impact points were on the wall nearby. "They must not be very good shots." Sarah caught herself thinking aloud from the spray pattern of the impact points.

"Vasir, I have a casualty here... looks like bullet wounds." Sarah knew this would get the message across.

"Bullet wounds? So this was more than just an explosion..." Came the acknowledging reply.

"Watch yourself, they used military grade hardware." Sarah could tell from the impacts that these shots came from a rifle, not from a civilian issue pistol.

The sniper, the explosion, and now evidence of a strike team. Whatever Liara had stumbled into was big but was this really all because of the Shadow Broker Sarah wondered to herself. If so then she had grossly underestimated the seriousness of the individual or the organization. Why now though? She couldn't help but wonder. Then it hit her, the data, Feron, it was her own fault Liara was in this mess. It was the only reason possible. Liara had been right and someone had been bugging her office. Sarah spared the guard one last look and shook her head. She forced her mind to quiet, knew that thoughts like this were why the krogan had gotten lucky two days ago. It wasn't going to happen this time... Liara needed her, could already be dying. Saren couldn't stop her, getting spaced hadn't stopped her, the Reaper's pet toys couldn't stop her, why the hell should she be afraid of some two bit information trader on a power trip? The thoughts raced through her mind and she couldn't help but let out an audible snort of derision at herself. This caused a confused reaction from Garrus and Thane who took it as an order they didn't understand. Of course she was worried she reminded herself. Liara was the one person in Sarah's entire life that she had let get this close, and now the asari maiden could be dead or dying. There wasn't any time to waste on petty thoughts she admonished. What Liara needed right now was the Hero of Elysium, not some lovesick human female that couldn't even keep her gun arm steady at the first sign of trouble. Blinking hard, Sarah shut out her internal dialogue and pushed ahead.

Waving off Thane and Garrus the three continued up the open stairwell to the third level plataeu of the inner plaza. To their left Sarah saw the holo sign for the Barria Frontiers office. As they got closer, she noticed a device positioned to the right of the door, partially hidden in some of the bushes growing along the side wall. Moving up to it, she saw that it was an unarmed explosive, two more were nearby, neither armed. Whoever it was must have been in a hurry to not even finish arming their own bombs, or maybe they were saving these for the cleanup she thought grimly of the possibilities. Everything was still quiet and they were now at the Barria Frontiers office doorway, Sarah shifted impatiently as the door slid open. In the entrance hallway was a vistor's logbook and Sarah checked it quickly. Liara's name was at the top of the list. Sarah felt her heart jump into her throat and she forced it down. No emotions, not now, she told herself harshly.

"Vasir, I'm at the Barria office, Liara signed in just a few minutes ago." Sarah's voice was calm and even.

"Understood. I'm on my way down." Came the clipped reply.

As the interior door to the Barria Frontiers offices slid open the three took positions against the walls, Sarah crouching low next to Garrus while Thane covered the opposite side. There was nothing to greet them. The announcement speakers were stuck in a broken audio loop of attempting to welcome visitors while a steady stream of water blanketed the area from overhead. Sarah was silently thankful that the fire extinguishers were working here at least. Thane moved up first, then Garrus, both covering a still intact glass pane with the Barria Frontiers logo that looked in on the offices beyond. Sarah Moved right and around the recption area checking her corners smartly. She was just about to signal to move deeper into the offices when it hit. A flashbang had been thrown out of a doorway ahead of her. The explosion caught her nearly full in the face. Whoever had thrown it was smart, it had ignited in midair, sending Sarah reeling back even as she felt the the heavy impact of rifle rounds on her kinetic barrier. Then Garrus had her, he roughly pulled her back around the corner of the reception area as he took her postion. The Turian's favored rifle, a vindicator, letting loose bullet streams into what Sarah could only guess was the same doorway she had been sighting. The flashbang was still blurring her vision but her hearing was starting to return. If she couldn't fight yet she could at least warn Vasir she told herself. The glass wall dividing the recption area from the cubicle style offices shattered as more rifle fire sighted in on the three, She could make out at least four soldiers taking up positions.

"Vasir! I'm under fire! Mercs! They're well armed!" She was already regaining her senses and couldnt let Garrus and Thane cover her forever, she needed to fight.

"Say hello to the Shadow Broker's private army commander... not too many ever get the chance to meet them." Tela's voice almost seemed teasing but Sarah didn't have time to think about it, these mercs were good and they were advancing on both sides of the small wall they were using as cover.

"Thane! Cover left! Garrus!.." Sarah was back on her feet and shouting orders.

" I know I know, just do your thing Shepard." Garrus cut her off impatiently as he changed out a thermal clip for his rifle

Nodding with a small grin of appreciation for the Turian's combat sense, Sarah set to work. The firefight was no laughing matter, the mercenaries seemed to operate seamlessly as an organized unit. Their armor reminded her of standard eclipse uniforms but they were darker and all of them wore customized helmets with glowing red eye sockets. The uniform was probably meant to instill fear but Sarah had seen worse, alot worse. They were making progress down the hallway as the mercenaries fell back into cover to recharge shields. They would have to get in close to finish them off Sarah observed, making note of the high damage tolerance on their kinetic barriers. The doorway just ahead of them was where the initial flash had come from, she had to clear it fast before they got trapped in the open. Sarah broke into a full run, executed a diving roll and saw her target's feet to the right as she went through the doorway, coming out of the roll into a crouch against a cubicle wall she brought her rifle to bear and opened up a stream of accelerator fire into the mercs head. Whoever they were even the high end kinetic barriers they were using couldn't stand up to a modified geth rifle at close range. She was again quietly thankful that Legion was proof that not all geth were muderous slaves of the Reapers. If they had tech this lethal already then the Quarians wouldn't stand a chance in a groundwar. This wasn't the time to think about that she reminded herself... these mercs meant business and they wouldn't be as sloppy as a krogan. The thoughts ran through her mind in brief seconds while Thane and Garrus moved into the cubicle area with her. Garrus was already taking up a covering postion at the next doorway while Thane vaulted easily over a high cubicle to catch a crouching merc off guard, his victim died in seconds as Thane's hands seemed to simply flow around him before resulting in a gurgling choke that was the merc's last gasp of air. Before the dead soldier hit the the ground Thane was already covering the same doorway as Garrus from the other side.

"Shepard," It was EDI, and Sarah cut short the charge she was just about to make, moving back to cover.

"Make it quick EDI we're under fire here." Came Sarah's clipped response.

"I am aware, I have gained access to their local communications, it may help you." EDI again seemed like she sincerely wanted to help.

"For things like this EDI you don't need to ask, patch us in." Sarah was impatient and she didn't have time to play nice with the ship.

"Understood." EDI affirmed.

"Flank left! Shield optics! Operative down right!" The voices were masked by some kind of filter that made them all sound almost mechanical and identical. Must make them think more like tools than individuals if they all sound the same and look the same Sarah thought to herself bitterly. It didn't matter, they were now between her and Liara. The gunfight was almost satisfying for Sarah as she lost herself in the deadly dance. The advantage of having access to enemy communications allowed her tearm to push agressively into their line and down another hallway that was half destroyed by bomb damage, the open sky showing a brief part of their life or death struggle to the outside world. The mercs were using rocket launchers now, and several combat drones were moving down the hallway. Sarah's cover was dissapearing fast and so was the hallway itself as multiple rocket impacts started to destabilize some of the support structure. Then, she saw her opening and took it. Dashing headlong into another grouping of cubicles ahead of them, she fell into a smart sideways roll to avoid incoming fire. She saw what she needed under the cubicle partitions, the feet of two mercs standing next to eachother. Opening up with a stream of accelerator rounds she shattered their shields at their feet before raising the angle of her gun to center mass. Firing right through the thin cubicle wall, the two soldiers were down in seconds and Sarah was already on her feet. She was now moving low through the cubicles, Garrus and Thane still right behind her.

They broke cover in three seperate places, tearing apart the rocket team that had been keeping them back. Then Garrus let out a grunt and Sarah glanced right to see his shield shatter as he fell back into cover. She quickly traced the source of the shots, finding her target. An audible click let her know that her rifle's thermal clip was at capacity and she swore, recompacting it and stowing it on her back mount with her right hand she drew her phalanx pistol and fired wither her left. The sound of the heavy pistol reverbrated heavily through the office as the shot impacted between the mercs eyes. Althought the merc's shield shattered instantly it had saved his life for the moment. The impact force, however, knocked him back and the merc didn't regain his feet before Thane ended him with precion shots from his favored tempest sub macine gun. They had already killed at least a dozen soldiers and their numbers were visibly thinning. Then in another minute, it was over. They had fought their way through to a small office cafeteria but their progress was stalled by rampant fire in the stairwell leading up to the executive offices.

"So much for the extinguishers working..." Sarah mused dryly."Vasir, I'm held up, there's fire blocking the stairwell to the upper offices.

"Shepard, I have gained limited access to the building and there should be an access point for the extinguishers near your location, uploading coordinates now." EDI seemed to know just when she was needed, and Sarah made a mental note to give her a proper thank you later. It didn't take long for Sarah to find the interface panel, it was in a small maintenance closet next to the stairwell. She connected the panel with her omni-tool giving EDI full access. In seconds EDI had activated the required systems and the fire extinguisher in the stairwell came to life. Damage to the piping caused the water to spray haphazardly but it was enough to clear the fire. Practically leaping over stairs, Sarah rushed recklessly upwards. Ignoring Garrus' warning, she rounded the corner of the stairwell and kept charging into an unclear approach. Suddenly the enemy comm chatter flared to life again and she was forced to react.

"Shield Optics!" Sarah knew what the warning meant and had no time, her only option was to be past the flash before it went off.

Letting her battlefield instincts drive her forward she continued her run, reaching the top of the stairwell she saw a hand tossing a flash grenade towards her from behind a pillar not ten feet away. Sparing a glance for her surroundings she tagged two more mercs on the opposite edge of what was an open balcony area overlooking the cafeteria. She was now in their direct firing line, she had to get to the merc behind the pillar. She reached the pillar as the flash went off at the top of the stairwell, she heard Thane grunt slightly and Garrus coaxing him forward over their own comm channel. The blast was enough to force her off balance but she was ready for it and used the momentum to pin the Merc that had just rounded the corner to follow up his flash. The surprised merc had no time to act and his gun hit on the ground as Sarah easily slapped it away with her free hand. Following up smartly, she struck the merc across the jaw with her pistol to daze him and then her free hand was tightly around his neck as he became her shield. Multiple rounds from the two mercs on the far end of the balcony meant for her found him instead as she smoothly ducked back behind the pillar. Then her support was there and the final two mercs fell as they had not seen the pair of expert marksmen that emerged from the stairwell.

Sarah gave herself a moment to breath so that Thane and Garrus could catch up then the three advanced again. For a third time, all was quiet and she used the moment to change out the thermal clip in her assault rifle before recompacting the weapon and continuing to use her Phalanx pistol. Beyond the open balcony room they entered the executive offices. According to EDI's direction, Sekat's office was in this area. The bomb damage to this part of the building was minimal and the Spectre caught herself feeling a small pang of hope that Liara was still alive. She knew without any doubt that if Liara wasn't alive, then whoever had done this was going to wish they had the support of the Reapers to keep them safe. The doorway to Sekat's office slid open and Sarah was surprised to see Tela Vasir just putting her pistol away as a merc fell dead in front of her, a single gunshot to the back of the head. She must have been very quiet to get behind him like that Sarah thought.

"Commander, to the right." it was Garrus and she could tell from his voice that whatever she was about to see wouldn't be good.

Biting her lower lip, Sarah turned slowly and let her eyes rest upon the body of a dead Salarian. She caught herself as her heart leapt and relief washed over her that it wasn't Liara.

"Damn, if I had just gotten here a few seconds sooner... I could've stopped him." Tela had re-compacted her pistol and turned to look out the window of Sekat's office, it overlooked the inner plaza Shepard's team had worked through just before entering the Barria offices. Sarah had already bent over to check the body of the Salarian while Garrus checked the Desk and Thane stood guard at the door.

"His personal datapad and omni-tool drive are gone, Thane does that merc have them?" Sarah was all business and her tone was cold. Thane moved to check while Sarah looked back to Garrus who was already shaking his head. After a few more moments of searching, Sarah stood up, letting a heavy sigh escape her before turning to look at Tela Vasir.

"Looks like a dead end..." Sarah said with no small hint of bitterness. A sense of helplessness coming over her for a moment as she tried to figure out where Liara could be.

"Mmm... too bad... speaking of which, did you find your friend's body?" Tela's voice was suddenly dripping venom and Sarah's alertness from the recent combat picked up on it. Her muscles were already tensing when a familiar voice broke the moment and her mind shattered with relief.

"You mean THIS body?" It was Liara, she had quietly slipped out of a ventilation shaft in the hallway and was advancing into the room with a heavy pistol drawn straight at Tela Vasir's head. Thane had caught the movement almost immediately but when he saw who it was he opted to remain silent for Sarah's sake. Liara was wearing a hardsuit herself, clearly prepared for combat, the design was a simple cotton white bodysuit with ocean blue trim. Somehow Liara had been covered in water. Liquid ran off her in rivulets and slid freely across her sky blue and

"Liara! Wait! This is Vasir, a spectre." Sarah was already trying to move in between the two but something in her mind screamed for her to stay out of the way and she paused. "Is there... something I should know?" Her emerald eyes narrowed and her body stiffened with a sense of lurking danger creeping at her spine.

"This is the woman that tried to kill me!" Liara's voice was hard and accusatory, her usually soft sapphire eyes were filled with murderous intent.

"You've... had a hard day so I'll let that slide... why don't you put that gun down?" Tela's voice wasn't as cool and collected as it had been a moment before.

"I saw you! I doubled back after I got away and watched you break into my apartment." Liara was now standing just ahead of the others, only a few feet separating her from Tela Vasir.

As Liara moved past Sarah there was a spark between their minds and Sarah thought she could see an image of Liara reacting to the sniper rounds, then of Tela Vasir breaking into the apartment as Liara watched from a side hallway. In that moment she knew that her gut was right and that the asari she had been working with was the real enemy. In a smooth motion Sarah drew her Phalanx pistol with her right hand and joined Liara in aiming at Tela's head even as Thane and Garrus followed suit. Tela Vasir was already backing towards the office window overlooking the plaza, her cool mask of composure rapidly burning away.

"So what you were just using me to find the message?" Sarah's own voice became cold as her emerald green eyes narrowed.

"No hard feelings Shepard, I just needed a little help tracking Liara down." Tela shrugged with a feigned casual nonchelance.

"Once she had my location she signalled the Shadow Broker's forces... They bombed the building to take me out!" Liara was visibly angry as she almost spat out the words. "She found Sekat, took his data... and killed him." Sarah heard the tinge of sadness in Liara's voice and it was only her cold rage towards Tela Vasir that stopped her from reaching out to give Liara comfort. "I'm guessing she still has the disc on her." Liara had regained her focus already and began advancing on Tela.

"Good guess!" Tela exclaimed in a sudden shout, raising her right hand to show a data disc in her partly closed palm. Her left hand moved behind her back at the same time. "Not that you'll ever see what's on it... YOU PUREBLOOD BITCH!" In a flash of light and sound the glass wall behind Tela Vasir shattered as her biotics flared, giving the asari an aura of blue energy of shifting hues that swirled around her body. Her left hand flew out from behind her to point towards her opponents and under the power of her biotics, the shattered glass flew towards Liara and the others. With a shower of lethal shards flying towards her, Sarah only had a moment to shield her face with her forearms. To her surprise, the glass never made contact. Liara was just as fast and before the lethal projectiles had even crossed the room a barrier was up around Sarah, Thane, Garrus, and herself. Sarah realized what had happened in an instant and she seized on the moment as Tela was turning to leap out the window. The asari Spectre grunted in surprise and looked down with anger contorting her features as Sarah body tackled her midsection, forcing both of them out of the office window and into midair three stories up.

"Looks like the Spectre just got on Shepard's bad side." Garrus commented to Thane with as much of a grin as a turian could manage. The drell assassin couldn't help but smile as he nodded in agreement. The pair ran forward to follow along with Liara, who had already dropped her barrier. In a flash of light outside the window, Tela Vasir's biotics flared again and the entangled pair of asari and human Spectre were floating. Sarah's sudden weight forced her down as Tela struggled to get free of her opponent's unusually strong grip. Then from the left a full force biotic punch connected squarely with the side of Sarah's face and she felt her grip slipping. Tela fought savagely to push free through biotic force. The asari let out a triumphant grunt as she kicked out fiercely, forcing Sarah down and away. As the hard ground rushed up to meet her the best the human Spectre could manage was a sideways tuck, trying to lessen the force of the impact. Her breath was still taken from her and her entire left side ached from the force of the biotic kick and the nearly three story fall. At least her bullet wounds were on the right side she told herself dryly. Sarah was still on the ground gasping for air when Tela landed gracefully not more than a few feet away. The Asari moved in to finish off her work. A gleeful look crossed her face as she focused her biotic energy into her raised and closed fist, wisps of blue glowing energy began to converge, growing in intensity.

"No!" Shouted Liara angrily as she lept off the window ledge herself, her biotics flaring as a barrier formed on the ground beneath her, cushioning her fall. Not wanting to let herself be caught, Tela turned away and ran back towards the entrance to the trade center. Liara hit the ground with a small grunt as she used her biotics again to propel herself forward, the force helped her to break into a full run almost the moment she landed. Her face was a mask of determination and Sarah thought she could feel Liara again as she passed by her, one thought was in her mind. Catch Vasir! Sarah tried desperately to regain her feet, she needed to get up, to help Liara. The pain in her side and her lack of breath forced her to double over again and as she tried to call out for Liara to wait the best she could manage was a groan of pain. Liara and Tela were already on the other end of the garden plaza. Tela vaulted the corner of a waist high divider meant to separate people from the vegetation as she tried gain ground. At that moment two Shadow Broker agents came up the stairs from the lobby, moving to cover Tela as she ran by.

Sarah tried to raise her pistol but they were too far away and she was still dazed from the fall. Liara wasn't about to be stopped though and with a cry of anger she threw out her right hand, slapping one guard aside like a rag doll even as she pushed forward with her left hand to pin the second guard against the wall. The power of her biotics made her seem like a bright blue ball of moving energy rather than an asari. There wasn't any time for the pain now, Liara needed help and that was all the motivation Sarah needed. She shut her eyes tight for a moment and exhaled, forcing the pain from her mind and willing her body to stand.

"Shepard!" Thane had followed her and Liara out the window and was already on the ground moving to help her stand up. Garrus wasn't about to be left behind and was dropping off of the open ledge from a hanging postion, his strong turian legs cushioning the fall as he let out a small grunt. Sarah had barely gotten to her feet when incoming rifle fire impacted her shields and she realized that the two guards were still alive and concious, what's worse more were showing up from offices on the other end of the plaza. The three of them quickly ducked into cover as Sarah scanned the area for options, waiting for the hum that would let her know her shields were at full strength.

"Stalling action! Flash out!" came the clipped orders of the merc team. Sarah grinned to herself as the tactical commands blared out over her own comm unit and she nodded to her teammates, pulling out her pulse rifle.

"Stalling action my ass... Garrus as soon as that flash goes off I want you on rifle duty, Thane, hand to hand, you know how to get there." her orders were short and stern but she knew it got the message across.

They moved deeper into cover to wait for the tell tale glow of the flashbang while Thane silently slipped up and over the raised plateau beside them, moving swiftly to get behind his quarry. In seconds the position where they had been was covered in a bright white flare of light. Using this as her cue, Sarah broke cover, letting a stream of pulse rifle fire force the advancing mercs back as she vaulted the barrier separating a depressed fountain area from the walkway. Garrus was already giving cover across the open plaza with his newly favored Incisor rifle and she broke cover again, deciding to take a page from Liara's playbook as she let out a short cry, covering the first merc she saw in pulse rifle fire. Luckily for her, Thane was in position as well and had just broken the neck of his first victim, a sniper that had been sighting in on his Commander.

Between the three of them the merc forces didn't last longer than a minute and Sarah broke into a full run for the stairway ahead of them, her lower body still dripping water from the fountain.

"You were right Garrus, gardens are fun to fight through." The human woman spared a quick moment for her usual battlefield banter with the turian.

"Told you." Was all Garrus needed to say in response as they both remembered their assault against a Weyrloc controlled hospital on Tuchanka.

Rounding the corner of the stairwell and heading back into the lobby area, Sarah did her best to keep herself calm. She caught sight of another group of mercs in the entrance hallway well before the first of them opened fire, peppering her shield as she made it to cover behind a broken support beam. Garrus' rifle opened up from the stairway, the triple shot burst he had come to enjoy leaving just enough spread to catch first one merc then another that was charging in next to him through their eye plates. It was a lucky spread at a good angle and the Turian knew it but he still couldn't help but grin to himself as he shouted "Two down!" with no small measure of pride. Only three left, the spectre thought to herself. Sarah took in a breath and vaulted the downed, pillar, landing smartly in a down knee position and letting loose with her rifle, the first merc dropped, two, left. Then Thane appeared behind them, grabbing the arm of one he turned the assault rifle his victim was holding into the other merc. His victim opened fire reflexively, doing the assassin's work for him as he smoothly worked the gun out of the merc's hand and turned it around, finishing the job with a grace that Sarah thought she'd never get tired of seeing. As a fellow soldier she appreciated the art of his work. They were clear and already moving through the entranceway out towards the skycar terminal. Sarah could hear pistol fire and raced to the short stairway leading to the to the public parking area. She could see Liara and Tela Vasir in a standoff behind wrecked skycars, it looked like the two had been using biotics in their fight and they were now trading pistol fire at eachother.

Seeing Shepard approach Tela swore under her breath and cast around quickly, searching for options. Working fast, she pulled up her omni-tool, keying in commands even as she ducked fire from Liara and now the human Spectre. Siezing her moment she let out a cry and broke cover. The asari Spectre forced up as powerful of a barrier as she could manage around herself just in time to stop the accelerated rounds from four expert marksmen as they tracked her escape. She was running straight for the edge of the skycar terminal, a platform that served as a landing area and overlooked the planet surface hundreds of feet below.

"Damnit!" Liara exclaimed angrily, already knowing what Tela was planning, she raced forward searching frantically for an available skycar. Tela Vasir jumped off the edge out into open air, her biotics flaring. With a whirring hum the asari Spectre's skycar flew up from under her, doors opened. She used her biotic energy to control her descent, landing easily in the skycar. Tela climbed into the driver's seat with a triumphant laugh as the doors of the skycar closed.

"Sarah!" Liara had found a skycar and was already in it, except she was in the passenger's seat. It was clear she wanted Shepard to drive. Sarah was already running over, Garrus and Thane as well but there was only room for three in the small taxi.

"Garrus, you're with me, Thane, make sure there aren't more mercs in the building then see if you can catch up... EDI will keep you updated." Sarah finished while climbing into the driver's seat, tracking Tela's skycar as it picked up speed, moving away from the terminal. Garrus simply nodded and settled into the back seat, the doors closing smoothly behind him. Thane was already moving back into the building.

"I'm fine by the way... thanks for asking." Sarah said the words a little more bitterly than she had meant to and immediately felt sorry for it as she saw Liara bite her lower lip out of the corner of her eye.

The taxi lifted off and Sarah had no more time to think about anything but driving, she was about to break every traffic law on Illium if she had to.

"EDI, tell Grunt, Jacob and Miranda to get their asses off the ship and ready to meet us but try to stay light on the specfics! Make sure Thane knows where we are too! Also, see what you can do to help us out here." Sarah cut in, her mind racing quickly for ways to stop the escaping Spectre.

"Tela Vasir's skycar is inacessible from available networks, I will do what I can." EDI's calm voice always seemed to give Sarah a sense of re-assurance that whatever the AI was doing would be done and done well.

"Come on she's getting away!" the urgency in Liara's voice was almost frustrating as Sarah knew there was nothing they could do about the lift off sequence of a skycar. Vasir's own skycar was already speeding off into the maze of skyscraper buildings ahead that made up the heart of Nos Astra's market district.

"Shepard I have gained access to city security networks and am monitoring Tela Vasir's progress, I have also gained access to several automated freighters and am repositioning them."

"Repositioning them how?" Sarah's voice was a little alarmed.

" I am creating roadblocks, they will slow her down." EDI almost made the statement sound like it was something Sarah should have already known.

"Right... just try not to cause too many wrecks, we're already going to have enough problems with civilians today." Sarah knew that total avoidance of collateral damage was impossible but at the very least she had to try and teach the AI about the value of doing things the right way and not the quick way.

"Understood Shepard." EDI was already working in compliance of her commander's directive as large automated frieghter's began slowly swinging themselves out into the major airways. The flow of traffic stalling as skycars have only very gradual rates of ascent and descent once in motion. With EDI's assistance Sarah had been given full manual control of the Taxi and she was putting it to good use. Weaving in and out of traffic lanes, skirting the tops of stalled frieighters and having more than one near miss in less than 20 seconds, the human Spectre already had both of her passengers wide eyed and gripping the arms of their seats very tightly. They were used to the way she piloted a Mako but only Garrus had any experience with the way she piloted high speed craft. After one mission in the M-44, he had asked to sit out the next several. Then, Liara forgot all sense of self preservation as she caught sight of Tela Vasir's gold colored skycar, it had swerved hard to the right to avoid colliding into a large freighter that was still moving slowly out into the airway.

"There she is!" the young asari shouted frantically, pointing towards their target.

"I see her." Sarah almost drawled, already in deep concentration as her mind raced to keep up with the speed of her driving. "EDI, see what you can do about boxing her in."

"Shepard, please be advised that if you are following her course you will also be at risk." Came EDI's almost motherly tone of warning.

"Just do it EDI, I can take care of myself." Sarah snapped a little too sharply.

"Understood." Her reply was short and Sarah immediately wondered if she had hurt EDI's feelings. Then she caught herself and shook her head at the thought.

"Hang a right, no wait left!" Liara was practically driving the car herself from the side seat as her eyes remained locked on the gold colored skycar ahead of them. Suddenly Vasir's skycar cut left between two buildings, narrowly avoiding a collision with an oncoming supply truck that began to spin sideways and out of control. The driver had panicked and turned too hard to avoid a headlong collision. Sarah easily avoided the hapless truck as it flew by and she followed Vasir into the tight alleyways between skyscrapers. The driving was difficult but it slowed Vasir down as well. The two raced, one in front of the other by only a few car lengths. Both Spectres were working frantically to pilot the maze of crisscrossing bridges and piping structures that interconnected the buildings of Nos Astra. Then Vasir cut hard left again, so fast that Sarah almost missed the turn even as Liara practically shouted her own direction.

"She's around the corner!" Liara did everything but turn the car herself.

"I'm on her." Sarah deadpanned as she made the hard turn, pushing Garrus and Liara against the sidewalls of the vehicle. They were still in back alleys but there was no sign of Vasir. Scanning rapidly Sarah saw the only place the asari could have gone, a large hole in one of the buildings ahead where construction was being done.

"We're not going into the construction site are... Oh goddess..." Sarah could practically hear Liara's stomach turning in her voice. The human Spectre's instincts were right and there was Vasir's car, it had slowed down. Sarah smirked as she closed on the near idle skycar. In seconds, however, the asari Spectre's vehicle was picking up speed and the chase was on two burst out the other side of the construction area and cut through another pair of buildings. Ahead of them Sarah could see heavy traffic and knew Vasir wouldn't risk going into it headlong out of a side street, she'd turn right. Almost as if she was agreeing with the thought, Tela's car shot hard to the right to join the flow of skycars and freight vehicles that were moving into a skyway tunnel which passed through several large buildings.

"EDI, where are those roadblocks I asked for?" Sarah asked sharply.

"Your course has changed directions multiple times, I am doing what I can, Shepard." EDI almost sounded apologetic.

"I won't let her get away with that data!" Liara was trembling in anger, her fists clenched, and Sarah thought she could feel biotic energy coming off the Asari in waves. Then Vasir's car Turned again, following a U turn in the tunnel that led them to a flow of traffic in the opposite direction. Sarah knew that now the asari was just going in circles, whereever she was trying to get to she didn't want to be followed.

"EDI, start blocking off all the roads around us, Vasir is leading us in circles." Sarah's voice was more than a little annoyed.

"Understood." Came the short affirmation.

The pair of cars shot back out of the skyway tunnel just as two large freighters were moving into position in front of them, one from above and the other from below, The large vehicles were too slow and Tela was already going to make it through a gap between them but it was going to be close for Sarah.

"Go go go go!" Liara was practically willing the skycar to accelerate as the two oversized freighters swung into place, they would be cut off from Vasir if they didn't make it through the rapidly diminishing gap that the Asari Spectre had slipped through.

"I'm going I'm going!" Sarah re-assured impatiently as she calmly slipped the car into the gap and the trio felt a quick shuddering vibration as they narrowly avoided impact. In the back seat Garrus coughed as if clearing his throat while Liara breathed heavily, her heart racing. The chase continued and the pair of cars weaved betwen several more buildings then Tela did something Sarah hadn't been expecting, the asari Spectre turned straight into oncoming traffic. In seconds skycars were flying out of control as driver's panicked at even the risk of a headlong collision.

"Traffic! Oncoming Traffic!" Liara almost shrieked, her own fear getting the better of her.

"We'll be fine!" Sarah waved a hand towards Liara dismissively, her usual playful grin in place even as she forced the taxi hard to the right to avoid a fast moving sportster. EDI had finally come through and along their right more large freight vehicles were slowly swinging and tilting themselves to create a barrier, forcing Tela to swerve left and back towards the same skyway tunnel entrance they had entered only moments before. Tela's car was too high to enter the tunnel and Sarah knew she wouldn't fly straight into a building, then she saw it, a small opening in the building that made up the right wall of the skyway tunnel. It was barely big enough for a skycar to fit through and Sarah gritted her teeth. Liara let out a stifled shriek when they shot into the small access tunnel that lead out into open alleyways between skyscrapers. The two cars were no more than three car lengths away from eachother and Sarah's superior driving was closing the gap as she cut corners smartly. For a moment Sarah thought she saw something fly out of the bottom of Tela's car, a small round object. She told herself it had to be debris from a near miss but seconds later it exploded, the impact of the blast shaking the Taxi roughly as Sarah fought the controls to keep the car steady.

"She's dropping proximity charges!" Liara had a hand to her forehead and her voice sounded dazed.

"I noticed..." Muttered Sarah bitterly as she blamed herself for not avoiding the object outright. The blast had not been close enough to damage the skycar and they were quickly reaching the end of the alleyways. Tela cut left, trying to stay in the buildings and lose her pursuer. Sarah followed but as soon as she was around the corner another explosion racked the taxi and Liara let out a short gasp.

"You ok?" Sarah asked quickly, the worry evident in her voice as she silently thanked herself for taking the turn wider than Tela just incase there were more charges. She made a mental note to not directly follow the asari anymore.

"Still better than the Mako." Liara said dryly, the comment forcing a small smile to the lips of both women. Even Garrus couldn't help but let out a short laugh.

The alleyways cut short again and they were in open sky, except that a long line of frieghters had formed a closing ring around them, a ring that was tightening as quickly as the freighters could move. Vasir swerved her skycar sharply around a frieghter on the left and Sarah seized on the moment, hitting the accelerator she flew straight at the frieghter. Jerking the car up at the last minute the taxi slid across the top of the frieghter and then was past it, now they were only a car length behind Tela Vasir.

"Shepard! Behind you!" It was EDI's voice and it was urgent.

Sarah spared a glance to the rear display and drew a sharp breath, holding it as she veered the taxi sideways and down to avoid two incoming missiles that had been launched from a troop transport. The missiles flew past them and then past Vasir, impacting the building in front of them just above the entrance to a skyway tunnel.

"She's got reinforcments!" Liara exclaimed with surprise. Debris was raining down and cars in the tunnel were already getting into wrecks. The military grade transport had better engines than either of the skycars and it flew past them into the tunnel. Sarah could see more of the Shadow Broker's mercenaries in the back as it went by and several of them had missile launchers.

"What kind of guns does this thing have?" Sarah asked in desperation. They were going to make a blockade she told herself grimly.

"Ungh, It's a taxi! It has a fare meter!" Liara said with exasperation. As the two skycars flew down the curving tunnel the troop transport's engines flared up and it sped ahead. Suddenly, the transport turned sharply, and Sarah knew exactly what they had planned. They would be fish in a barrel in this tunnel. Then it happened, whoever was piloting the transport had not paid attention because they had turned into the oncoming lane just as a very large frieght truck came around the corner of the T shaped junction ahead of them. The ensuing explosion as the truck impacted the transport covered most of the wide lane tunnel. As the freight truck rolled sidways it was rapidly blocking off the entire tunnel.

"Truck!" Liara shouted fearfully.

"I know." Came Sarah's calm reply

"Truck!" Liara said again with no less fear as Sarah seemed to be flying straight into the oncoming wall of fire and debris.

"I know!" Sarah shouted back and pulled the skycar sideways at just the right moment, sliding neatly through an opening between the truck and the left wall. Liara could only gasp and shut her eyes as they flew through the flames.

"There we go!" Sarah stated triumphantly as they passed the wreckage and followed Vasir out of the tunnel at the T junction.

"You're enjoying this." Liara observed, her voice suddenly curious.

Sarah spared Liara a quick playful grin in affirmation as she kept her eyes on the gold skycar just ahead of them. Tela was weaving now, looking for a way to get away as more freighters swung themselves into her path. Sarah could tell she was getting desperate. From behind them another of the Broker's troop transports flew by at breakneck speed. Then a skycar came flying around one of the blocking frieghters and straight into the front of the transport, both vehicles began careening like pinballs in opposite directions as they became little more than burning debris.

"A headong collision at this speed..." Liara mused pointedly.

"Yeah I hear those are pretty bad for you..." Sarah mused back, determined to get her Asari companion to lighten her mood.

Ahead of them EDI was swinging a freighter onto it's side to stall Vasir and the asari turned too late. Her skycar's rear end slammed hard into the center of the freighter and flames erupted, electrical sparks shooting out from the engine along the frame.

"Hold on." Sarah told her companions as she moved her skycar up next to the asari Spectre's. They could see the warning alarms flashing on Tela's console but she only spat at them defiantely as she struggled to maintain control. Sarah wasnt going to give her time and she sideswipped Vasir's skycar. The impact shook both cars violently and Sarah had to swerve to avoid a headlong collision of her own. The two cars clashed twice more as the asari Spectre tried desperately to gain the advantage before her own car crashed. Then Sarah hit the brakes for just a moment and Tela swerved too far and went straight into an oncoming sedan. Tela's car went spinning out of control and crashed hard into the side of a hotel balcony not far off. Luckily, there was a public landing area for the same hotel very close to the crash.

* * *

><p>************ Two of a kind ************<p>

* * *

><p>With a gentle hum of the engine, the taxi glided easily down into the wide parking terminal for the hotel. There were already bystanders moving about in a panic as a fire from the crashed skycar burned on the hotel balcony suite to the left. The skycar door's swung open and the three exited as quickly as possible. The hum of a powerful engine overhead caused Sarah to look up. Above them were two more troop transports and both were moving into landing positions to cut off their access to the hotel. The skycar terminal was surrouneded by a raised plaza ring dotted by plantlife similar to the entrance of the Dracon Trade center and the mercenaries were already taking up positions to stop their advance.<p>

"They're dropping in reinforcements to slow us down... we'll need to find a way past them." Liara said almost angrily as she and Sarah ducked behind a parked skycar to avoid incoming rifle fire.

"Well then we better hope you haven't totally forgotten how to use your biotics." Sarah quipped sarcastically.

"I told you before, I am more than capable of handling the violence. I'm sure you'll be impressed." Liara stated flatly.

"I dunno T'soni, I've been working with a Justicar and the most powerful human biotic ever seen, you've got your work cut out for you if you want to impress me." Sarah couldn't hide the teasing grin from her face as she stared into the Asari's sapphire blue eyes.

Not wasting any more time, Liara simply drew in breath as her biotics flared, encasing her in a cyan aura of energy. For a few moments, it was as if they had never been apart, and Liara's use of her biotics worked seamlessly in tandem with Sarah and Garrus' rifle fire. The asari would send her opponents flying or floating only to have them die within seconds as her human and turian teammates preyed upon the helpless targets. They moved as one, working out of the skycar terminal and up into the entrance plaza while two more troop carriers came flying into the area. With nearly two dozen mercenaries now standing between them and the hotel entrance they needed another route. Then, a stroke of luck gave them their chance as a hotel patron lifted off in his skycar. The hapless civilian car impatced squarely with the front of another incoming transport. While the skycar crashed back into the terminal area , the tranport careened out of control and flew into the side of the hotel. The crash created a hole in the building's wall that lead exactly in the direction they needed to go. The mercenary forces moved to cut them off from the new hole but it was too late. Garrus was the first through the wall and he immediately turned around, giving cover as Liara and then Sarah pulled themselves up and over the debris. They were now on the opposite end of the long curving hallway leading to where Vasir had crashed.

"Garrus, Place a charge and close that hole! Liara keep them back! Sarah was practically shouting her orders as the three fought desperately to push back the encroaching soldiers. "EDI, do you have access to this building's security?"

"Yes." Came EDI's short reply.

"Do what you can to trap Vasir in the building!" Sarah ordered quickly.

"Very well Shepard." EDI was already setting to work.

"Your ship's technician... this EDI, seems very talented. Tali'Zorah must be jealous." Liara observed with a hint of curiosity. Sarah couldn't help but let out a small laugh as she wondered how Liara would react if she knew the truth. After a few moments Garrus signalled he was finished and the three raced off down the long curving hallway that would lead them to Vasir's crash. The wall gave way to a glass pane that looked out over a balcony garden and they could see smoke from the wrecked skycar ahead. An explosion sounded behind them and Sarah hoped it would be enough to keep the mercenaries occupied as they kept moving.

The three were now coming up on the crashed skycar. Tela had been able to avoid crashing directly into the building and had slid the car along the balcony and into the hallway, shattering the glass outer wall. Sarah cast her eyes about quickly, looking for any sign of the asari Spectre. Then she noticed a dark blue liquid that was pooling on the ground.

"A blood trail!" Liara had seen the same thing and let out an excited exclamation. "She must've gotten hurt in the crash."

"It should make her easy to follow." Sarah nodded in agreement as she and her companions continued down the hallway.

Passing an open doorway to a hotel room, Sarah glanced inside and saw a terrified patron shrink away from them and what looked like a wall sized holo-vid advertisement for the hotel playing. It was showing several barely dressed asari dancing seductively around eachother and around several seated "clients" of various species who all had very excited looks. The words Hotel Azure were branded across the top of the large screen.

"What kind of hotel is this?" Sarah asked with a smirk as she looked back at Liara. They were still moving at a quick pace down the hallway but were nearing the end of it. the Asari almost seemed embarrased for a moment as she slowed.

"Azure... it's... a hotel with an exotic edge... azure is... slang for a certain part of the asari body... in some areas of Illium." Liara tried to keep her explanation as vague as possible Sarah noticed.

"Where?" Sarah asked with a playful tinge to her voice.

"Mainly the lower reaches... near the bottom." Liara sounded slightly uncomfortable now.

"I meant... where on the Asari body?" Sarah pressed, her own curiosity now raised.

"So did I." Liara stated simply, not wanting to meet Sarah's gaze.

The Open curving hallway ended as it lead back into the hotel, branching in several directions. Ahead they heard gunshots and screaming, the three raced on to catch the fleeing Spectre. They reached the open doorway to a penthouse suite and moved inside carefully, following the trail of dark blue liquid that was the asari Spectre's lifeblood. Inside they saw the bodies of a human woman and two asari, all three had been shot by a rifle and Sarah swore angrily under her breath as her fists tightened. They moved quickly through the penthouse, following Vasir's bloodtrail out to an open patio area. The small patio looked out on a large, open air restraunt and garden. The architecture was very similar to what they had encountered in the Dracon trade center with partitioned plantlife and a long curving pond blending easily into a dining area. A domed glass ceiling offered protection from unwanted elements. Patron's of several races were seated at tables and the sound of their conversations carried to the three as they advanced cautiously off the patio and into the open garden. At the far end of the garden they caught sight of their target, the Asari Spectre had spatters of her own blood on her armor and was beating angrily against a doorway that should have lead out of the restraunt area but was sealed and locked.

"Good job EDI." Sarah intoned quickly as she straightened out of the cover she had been using and pointed her favored phalanx pistol at her target.

"It's over Vasir!" Liara shouted to be heard over the din of the restraunt patrons as she joined Sarah, with Garrus close behind them. All three had weapons pointed straight at the asari Spectre.

Whirling quickly, Tela did not wait for her opponents to act and saw what she needed. In a flare of biotic energy Tela Vasir seemed to vanish for an instant as she pushed all of her substantial power into propelling herself forward. The flash of energy flew at surprising speed and came to a stop directly behind a passing human woman. Tela had gained a shield, with her left hand she kep a tight lock around the throat of her victim while her free hand pointed a Carnifex pistol at her three pursuers. All around them, hotel patrons and onlookers were screaming in fear and surprise as they scrambled to get clear of any potential gunfire. Unnoticed by Vasir, the same doorway she had been trying to get through was now opened and people were rapidly leaving the area.

"What's your name?" Tela asked her victim in an almost conversational tone, never taking her eyes off of her opponents.

"M-M-Mariana..." The human woman managed weakly as she tried to struggle against her captor. She was a caucasian woman in her early 30's with short curly blonde hair. She was wearing a close fitting light purple evening dress with black trim.

"Mariana..." Tela seemed to toy with the name as she said it. "You want to live don't you? Why don't you tell these people that you want to live." The asari's voice had instantly turned venomous as she tightened her hold on Mariana's neck.

"Please..." Was all Mariana could manage to say as she stared imploringly at Sarah and the others. The human woman's hazel eyes betrayed her terror.

"Even if you get out of here you're still going to lose your Spectre status! You attacked the trade center!" Sarah said in a disgusted tone, her eyes narrowing in anger.

"You think so? I think maybe Cerberus terrorists did that!" Tela sounded almost elated at her own cover story. "Which story do you think the council will beleive?" Her voice exuded confidence even as Sarah thought smugly that a recorded conversation was worth any number of lies.

"All you had to do was walk away. Now it gets ugly." Vasir's voice was venomous again as she turned her pistol to the temple of her captive.

"Please..." Mariana pleaded again, tears streaming down her face now. "I have a son." Was all she could manage to get out.

"A son?" Vasir almost seemed pleased at the realization and she grinned wickedly. "I hope he gets to see you again." Taking on her usual confident tone she shifted her gaze to first Sarah and then Liara as she continued. "I've heard losing a parent is just horrific for children. Scars them for life."

Her meaning was clear as a flashback of the batarian raid on Mindoir flew to the front of Sarah's mind and she almost pulled the trigger of her pistol out of sheer anger. Then Liara's voice cut in and Sarah realized she was not the only one that comment had been meant for.

"I'm going to end you Vasir!" Liara's eyes had narrowed and her biotic energy was sparking in an aura around her even as she began to squeeze the trigger of her pistol. Sarah remembered in an instant that Liara had watched her own mother die on Noveria.

"It's okay Liara!" Sarah sidestepped slightly to nudge Liara's pistol arm away from it's target. "We'll handle it... the usual way." Sarah's voice was cold and collected as she locked eyes with her asari counterpart in front of her.

"You want Mariana's little boy to grow up without a mommy Shepard?" Vasir's voice was equal parts mocking and threatening as her eyes narrowed. "Thermal clips on the ground, now! Power cells too!." She practically shouted the demand as she pushed her pistol barrel into Mariana's temple threateningly. Behind her, Sarah heard Garrus let out what she thought was a laughing cough and she almost let a smile of amusement break her own stony appearance.

"That's it?" Sarah said with as much cold contempt dripping in her voice as she could manage.

"What?" Tela Vasir paused as she processed the response, it had not been what she was expecting.

"Vasir I sacrificed hundreds of human lives to save the Destiny Ascension." Sarah kept her tone almost contemptous as she continued. "I unleashed the Rachni on the galaxy. So for your sake... I hope your escape plan doesn't hinge on me not shooting a damn hostage."

"You're bluffing!" Vasir clearly doubted her own words as she turned her pistol on Sarah, confusion and anger in her eyes.

"Now Liara." Sarah called with an air of finality and confidence.

Liara T'soni had not let the oppurtunity go to waste as she unleashed the biotic power she had been gently building up. In a flare of blue energy Liara threw her right hand out as if grabbing at air and then pulled it towards her. From behind Tela Vasir, a restraunt table lifted easily off the ground and turned on it's side, the flat surface impacting heavily into the surprised asari. The stunned Spectre flew through the air and landed in the waist deep waters of the long pond that was the centerpeice of the dining area. She had lost her grip on her victim in the initial impact and her pistol flew out of her hand when she hit the water. Sarah raced over to Mariana to stand between her and the now submerged asari while Liara and Garrus both waited patiently for their chance to open fire. Mariana struggled to her feet and ran for the open doorway the others had used, tears streaming down her cheeks.

With a cry of unbridled rage, Tela Vasir burst out of the water, her biotics flared brightly and she erected an incredibly dense barrier field around herself. In a spark of energy she propelled herself out of the fountain and made towards Mariana again. This time, Sarah was ready. Even as the glowing blue streak of energy that was Tela Vasir neared the helpless human woman, a fist impacted her squarely in the face and she faltered. Sarah had anticpated Tela's move and beat her to the punch, literally. The human Spectre wasted no time as her diving punch turned into a roll that let her regain her footing, opening fire with her pistol as she came into a crouch. Tela was forced back away from Mariana and into cover, her barrier weakened visibly from the concentrated fire of her three opponents. Sarah had already recompacted her pistol and was drawing her geth pulse rifle. Mariana made it to safety, the doorway to the restraunt closing and locking with a finality behind her.

"Time to show you what a real Spectre can do!" Tela Vasir shouted tauntingly, drawing her Spectre issue battle rifle even as her biotics flared again. She moved in a burst of energy, propelling her to the right of Sarah's position. This put Sarah into Garrus and Liara's line of fire and they both acted swiftly, changing positions. Sarah had tracked the movement easily and the Tela was greeted with a stream of accelerated rounds aimed at her face. Even with her barrier the force of the rounds pushed her off balance and she grunted angrily. Garrus and Liara broke their cover, moving to outflank their target when a shattering crash from overhead signalled new arrivals. Two of the Shadow Broker's troop transports had broken through the high domed ceiling of the restraunt area and were moving into landing positions. All four of the combatants on the terrace were forced to cover themselves as large shards from the ceiling came raning down around them. Sarah ducked under a nearby table while Liara brought up a barrier around Garrus and herself. Vasir's own barrier did it's work and she seized on the moment to open fire at the exposed human soldier. Sarah swore under her breath and pushed the table on it's side. She wanted to keep herself between the asari Spectre and any possible escape route. The high powered rifle tore through the table easily and shattered Sarah's shielding in the seconds it took her to duck behind a large vegetation divider. One round found it's mark and Sarah let out a hiss of pain as the high powered slug went cleanly through her left arm just above the elbow narrowly missing bone. She had tried to twist her body to avoid the shots but it had not been enough she admonished herself with a dry smile.

"Garrus, the drivers! Liara, control!" She was keeping it as short as possible, seconds in a fight like this meant the difference between life and death. The troop transports were already landing and each carried eight soldiers including the driver. They were going to be sorely outnumbered very soon. Sarah knew that her only chance was to keep Tela busy and trust her team to handle the others. Waiting for her shields to recharge, Sarah moved low along the dividing wall, sparing quick glances over to keep tabs on her target. Garrus had driven Vasir back into cover the instant he saw her sighting his Commander but he was now following orders, moving to get clean shots on the transport drivers. Meanwhile, Liara had flared up her own biotics and was a moving ball of blue energy as she shouted angrily, doing all she could to keep the mercenary force subdued. The Broker's forces were very experienced soldiers and they quickly broke apart, negating Liara's ability for crowd control even as they forced both Liara and Garrus to take cover. Then it was Sarah's turn and she thought she heard Tela Vasir laugh in delight as assault rifle fire from multiple angles began probing Sarah's position for anything left exposed. Several shots came close enough to impact with her shields and she swore angrily, knowing the hits would keep her shield from fully recharging. She thought rapidly and realized she had one chance. Compacting her assault rifle with her right hand she pulled her Viper sniper rifle off her backmount with her left in a practiced grace, keeping herself crouched as low as possible as she did so. Counting seconds, she took in a sharp breath as she heard the crack of sound and saw the flare of blue light that signalled Tela Vasir's approach. Sarah knew the Spectre was moving in for the kill, and it would be her biggest mistake. Breaking into a low run Sarah willed every bit of energy out of herself she could manage, the microfiber preforation of her muscles giving her uncanny speed.

Tela Vasir had seen the human Spectre's shield go down, had seen the small spray of red that indicated a hit. The Turian had kept her from charging straight in for the kill but she was patient. She watched as her reinforcements gained ground and saw her moment when the human's shield had vibrated from several impacts. In a burst of willpower and motion she pushed her body forward through biotic force. She moved to where she knew she could have an open kill on the human upstart that had caused her so much trouble. The movement took brief seconds and then she was where she needed to be and her rifle opened fire. In her elation, it took her several moments to realize the human was not dead, and had not even been in her line of fire. With a look of surprised fear, she realized that the greyish black and red trim coloring at her feet was her target. Sarah had dived forward, and was now pointing a semi automatic sniper rifle into Vasir's chin. With her tomboyish grin firmly in place, Sarah Shepard opened fire. Squeezing off round after round into the asari's shimmering biotic barrier at point blank. Even though Tela's quick reaction in reinforcing her barrier saved her life, the sheer force of the rounds threw her backwards several feet and she cried out in pain as she hit the corner of a divider exchange had taken only seconds but now Tela Vasir was visibly weakened as she dragged herself behind the divider, her barrier of biotic energy substantially less powerful. The asari gripped her side tightly, blood leaking out from her armor where she had been wounded in the crash. Refusing to give up, she began firing wildly around the corner, forcing Sarah back.

Above them, another troop transport settled into a vertical descent and Sarah's heart sank, both of her teammates were still trapped behind cover and only the drivers and four of the mercenaries were dead. They were about to be outflanked and massacered and the human Spectre was running out of options quickly. Her mind began racing even as two more transports came into view, lining up their descent angles into the large plaza area. Despair crept over her and she re-compacted her sniper rifle, changing back to the geth pulse rifle with a graceful ease. Then, a low boom resounded through the plaza that gave even Tela Vasir pause. The gunfire halted for a moment as everyone glanced around for what had caused the sound. The front viewpane of the lowest approaching transport had shattered. The driver's head was gone and the transport, which was still 10 feet off the ground, went lurching sideways towards the edge of the plaza spilling out it's remaining passengers. Recognizing the noise, Sarah swore quietly even as hope leapt up in her mind. She only knew one 'person' in the galaxy that used such a powerful Anti-Material rifle.

"Damnit EDI I said no to Legion being in on this! Where's Grunt and the others?" Sarah was trying to control her anger as she practically shouted at the ship AI.

"They are already here Shepard. Legion overheard my notification and they insisted it was possible to serve in a support role without direct danger. They understood your concern." EDI's tone was again almost apologetic. Sarah reminded herself quickly that Legion was a 'they' not really a 'he'.

True to EDI's words, Grunt came bull rushing out of the same doorway so many civilians had escaped through earlier letting out a cry of excited rage. The hulking form of the krogan was followed closely by Miranda and Jacob as the three moved to outflank the Mercenary force. From the opposite end of the plaza, where Sarah and the others had originally entered, Thane appeared and took up a sniping position of his own. As the first newly arrived transport flew off the edge of the plaza, it's pilot dead, a second low boom rang out across the plaza. The shot ripped through the fuselage on the underside of the third transport, creating a bursting explosion in midair and instantly killing the soldiers aboard.

"Your orders Battlemaster!" Grunt called as he ducked into cover, avoiding rifle fire from the soldiers that were quickly exiting the only transport out of three to have landed. There were now at least 20 mercs on the ground but the odds suddenly didn't seem so terrible. Sarah couldn't help but let a half smile play across her face as she always did when Grunt called her 'battlemaster'.

"You know the drill boys and girls," Sarah drawled in an almost casual tone. "Rip these mercs in half! Thane, Garrus, rifles, Grunt time for your shotgun to earn it's pay. Miranda, Jacob, work with Liara. Leave the asari bitch for me. Legion that goes double for you wherever you are. Just make sure she doesn't get away!" Sarah finished giving her commands almost happily as she waited and watched for her moment. Her team did exactly as they were told and ignored the asari spectre in as much the same way she ignored them. Tela Vasir's eyes were burning pools of rage and it was all focused towards her human counterpart, she had no time for anyone else.

As the Shadow Broker's mercenaries became little more than ragdolls and target dummies, Tela Vasir and Sarah Shepard began a savage gunfight that lasted several minutes. Again and again the two Spectre's closed on eachother, retreating, firing, diving, advancing. The Asari became more and more frustrated as Sarah's uncanny speed and near perfect combat senses seemed to outmatch the raw power of Tela's biotic abilities. For centuries the Asari warrior had used her biotics to outmanuver and destroy any opponent she fought. The idea that a human with no biotic potential was able to outthink and outmanuver her was maddening. As the gunfire and screams of dying mercenaries died down around them, neither noticed. Vasir's spectre rifle and Sarahs' geth pulse rifle traded streams of death time and again as the pair probed eachother for an advantage. Each time Tela Vasir tried to use her biotic powers to propel herself into a flanking position, she met with failure. Twice she was greeted by rifle fire from Sarah and the third time by Sarah's carefully timed fist. The strength afforded to the human by her biosynthetic body and muscles knocked the wind out of the asari and she barely managed a return punch of her own that forced Sarah back. Tela had gasped for air and clutched at her midsection with her free hand, blood coming out of the side of her mouth.

"Time to end this..." Sarah muttered as she realized her entire team was now watching patiently and intently just as they had been ordered. Tela was getting sloppy in her rage, and Sarah pressed the advantage. Rushing forward the moment her opponent ducked behind cover to reload, Sarah vaulted the low divider Tela was using. The human Spectre opened fire from point blank into the surprised asari's midsection even as she savagely kicked out, knocking Vasir's battle rifle away. The final remnants of Tela Vasir's biotic barrier shattered in seconds and Sarah let go of the trigger on her rifle as multiple rounds punctured her opponent's chestplate, blue blood coming out in rivulets.

"Damnit!" Tela spat, as she looked up with hate filled eyes at her killer. Liara ran over to the two Spectres in a rush and knelt down next to the dying one, searching her. The rest of Sarah's team began moving towards their Commander as well. "A human... of all things..." Tela Vasir coughed and weakly tried to stop Liara from searching with no success. Finding what she wanted in a compartment at Vasir's waist, Liara stood up and nodded to Sarah.

"Sekat's personal datapad... this has what we need to find Feron." Liara sounded almost relieved as she began working with her omni-tool to retreive the data stored on the disc. Sarah remained impassive as she looked at Liara, trying not to betray her feelings of apprehension at helping her reunite with this Feron.

"You're dead!" Tela Vasir cut in angrily as she fought for breath. "The Shadow Broker has been in power for longer than you've been alive! He's stronger than anything you've ever faced!" The asari Spectre was quickly dying as her blood formed in a pool around her. Rage still burned in her eyes.

"Anything I've EVER faced? You must not know much about me then." Sarah had turned to leave but whirled quickly as she heard this, her emerald eyes burning with unrestrained anger and contempt. "Is that why you sold out the council to work for him?"

"You think I betrayed the council?" Tela tried to laugh but blood came out and she gasped for air. "Like Saren? Go to hell! The Broker's given me damned good intel over the years... intel that's saved lives and kept the Citadel safe!" She was doing her best to use the same defiant arrogant manner she had used when she and Sarah had first met. "If the Broker needs a few people to 'dissapear' I'll pay that price without hesitation."

"Spectre's don't blow up buildings filled with innocent people!" It was Sarah's turn to cut in and she did so almost in a shout of anger.

"Sure we do," Vasir adopted an almost sadistic grin. "We get our hands dirty so that the councillor's don't have to. They might complain about our methods to soothe their guilty conciences but they never look too closely..." She spat out blood, drawing in air sharply and locking eyes with Sarah coldly. "Besides... you're with Cerberus! Don't you have ANY Idea what your terrorist friends have done?"

"I know who they are... and what they've done and it doesn't matter..." Sarah gritted her teeth and clenched her fists tightly. She was about to continue, to say she didn't work for Cerberus when Tela cut in angrily.

"I think it does! You want to judge me? Look in the mirror!" She sneered with contempt, holding a hand to her chest as if to stop her lifeblood from flowing out. "Kidnapping children for biotic deathcamps? Murdering Alliance Admirals that ask too many questions? And you're with them! Don't you dare judge me..." Tela's voice was weak now and she fought to keep herself awake with little success. "Don't you... dare...judge..." Her eyes flitted close and her head rolled to one side, a final breath escaping her lips.

"It's still not the same." Sarah shook her head and turned away to look at her waiting team. In front of her were Garrus, Thane, Grunt, Miranda and Jacob. Sparing each of them a quick once over she checked for any serious injuries, seeing none, the human Commander breathed a sigh of relief. Looking past them, she saw Liara seated at one of the few still upright restraunt tables pouring over her new data. "Wait... where's Legion?" She asked worriedly as she realized he was not part of the lineup.

"By now he's probably back on the shuttle waiting for us." Miranda stated in her usual observant manner. "What's this all about Shepard?"

"In a nutshell? My friend the good doctor T'soni over there upset some very powerful people it looks like... thanks for coming to help." Sarah did her best to keep the explanation as vaugue as she could.

"Well it was our pleasure." Miranda replied simply, seeing that her Commander did not want the issue pursued.

"Yeah, anytime Shepard." Jacob nodded in agreement.

"It was a good fight battlemaster." Nodded Grunt, he had been impressed watching the duel between Shepard and the asari Spectre.

"That asari made one mistake... she got on your bad side Shepard." Garrus intoned jokingly, causing a chorus of laughter to ripple through the group as even Grunt joined in. As the laughter died down, Sarah turned her attention to Liara who was still some distance away looking over the information she had accquired. Noticing the look, Garrus took control of the situation.

"We'll give you some space Comander." Garrus gave a nod to Sarah as he motioned to the others to back off. "C'mon, we'll see them on the shuttle." Sparing a small grin towards the turian that was her way of saying thanks, Sarah took a deep breath and strode purposefully towards Liara. Nearby, the familiar sound of the Normandy's Kodiak drop shuttle made itself known as it manuvered into the large plaza, coming to rest neatly between several vegetation dividers. Approaching Liara, Sarah shut her eyes and tried to tell herself not to worry.

"Vasir's dead..." Sarah began, unsure of what to say. Standing, Liara de-activated her omni-tool and turned towards the waiting shuttle, not even looking at the human next to her. Taking a deep breath, the asari forced out the strong feeling of closeness and warmth that she felt anytime she was around Sarah Shepard.

"I've put the data through to the Normandy's computers... we can be at the Shadow Broker's base in a few hours. It won't be long before he knows about Vasir. If he decides to kill Feron..." Her voice was calm, collected, and cold.

"We'll get Feron back alive Liara... I promise." The words almost phsyically pained Sarah to say but she knew that this person was important to Liara. She put all of her willpower into sounding as re-assuring as she could.

"I know..." Liara cast her eyes down to the ground and she closed her fists. "You're here to help... just like always..." Her voice was distant and filled with a sadness that Sarah couldn't understand.

"Thats... not a good thing?" Sarah asked with confusion, reaching out a hand to comfort Liara. After a moment she pulled it away without making contact as doubt filled her mind that the asari would even want her comfort.

"When we first met on Therum... you saved me from the geth." Liara turned and locked eyes with Sarah, her sapphire eyes betraying the sadness and vulnerability she had worked for two years to bury behind a mask of cold determination. "You fought a Krogan Battlemaster while I cowered..." Liara's voice trailed off as she almost seemed to blame herself for some fault that Sarah couldn't recognize. "Now you're doing it again... and I'm still leaning on you for help." She finished bitterly.

"That's what friends..." Sarah paused as she wondered if they really were just friends now. "Thats what friends do Liara!" She finished with finality. For long moments the two simply stared at eachother, Sarah unsure what to say and Liara still mired in her own self loathing.

"I can get us there based on Sekat's data... we'll need the Normandy's stealth drives to safely approach." Liara had adopted her cold collected tone again as she tried to force herself to think about her objective and nothing more. "The Shadow Broker's forces are here and with luck, they won't know we've left until it's too late." She was now turning to walk towards the shuttle.

"That's a little cold," Sarah took hold of Liara's arm to stop her but Liara shied away quickly, avoiding Sarah's gaze. "They killed innocent people."

"You know what I mean..." Liara protested weakly, her cold demeanor slipping away.

"Do I?" Sarah pressed, her tone becoming accusatory. "When I hit the ground back at the trade center you went after Vasir without even a backward look." Her implication was clear, Sarah was telling Liara that she didn't care about her friends, about her.

"A little fall wasn't going to kill you." Liara's tone of re-assurance almost seemed more for herself than for Sarah as she turned away, staring out across the Nos Astra skyline. "I had to stay on Vasir. Stay rational, make the call... Like I did with Sekat." Liara couldn't fully hide the tinge of sadness and regret in her voice and she looked down, shutting her eyes.

"That was Vasir's fault, not yours." Sarah's own reserves melted as the need to comfort Liara overpowered her frustration.

"Sekat had no idea what the stakes were... I put him in harm's way to get the data I needed... I got him killed. And I'd do it again." Liara had regained her composure and she looked back at Sarah, the cold mask of determination again hiding her feelings. "From here on out things will be simple." Liara turned to walk towards the shuttle, moving as she finished. "Get in, get Feron, get out. And kill anyone that tries to stop us."

"That's it?" Sarah asked with a hint of contempt.

"That's it." Liara confirmed as she continued walking, the Shuttle was not far away and the others waited patienly inside. Refusing to let it end there, Sarah grabbed Liara's arm tightly, pulling the asari back towards her and looking directly into her pale blue eyes.

"Will you just stop for a second? Mercs aren't raining down around our heads and there are no bugs listening in on us, there's some time to talk." Her voice was almost pleading but firm.

"About what?" Liara snapped impatiently as she twisted her arm free of Sarah's grasp.

"About us!" Sarah blurted out, her emotions winning out over the need for composure.

"Sarah... listen... I'm glad you're here..." Liara started, her tone apologetic but confused.

" What, You worried there might be terminals you need me to hack?" Sarah cut in with barely disguised sarcasm.

"That's not fair!" Liara frowned, shaking her head. "You were dead!"

"I came back!" Sarah stated with finality. She had gotten quite a bit of practice responding to this statement over the past several months.

"It's not that easy!" Liara exclaimed as her emotions began to get the better of her. "You can't just show up, and have two years of mourning suddenly vanish!" Liara had almost shouted the words as a tear escaped her left eye. Pressing a hand to her forehead the Asari shut her eyes and looked away. "I'm sorry Sarah... I... can't get into this right now."

"You haven't been the same since I got back Liara!" Sarah wasn't able to contain the worry and frustration in her voice.

"What do you want me to say Sarah?" Liara took a small step towards her, almost seeming as if she wanted to comfort her. "That I mourned you? That I feel guilty because Feron got captured to save me?" Her own face was filled with sadness and pain now as she continued. "I made mistakes. I lost people. I helped get you back and I want to do the same for Feron!" Liara was fighting back tears of her own now. "Look..." She took in a breath and tried to calm herself. "I'll sit and talk once he's safe. Until then, stopping to enjoy the scenery is an insult to the man that saved both of us!" Liara let a tinge of anger creep into her voice as she finished.

"Both of us? You mean.." Sarah started, realization dawning on her.

"Yes... he sacrificed himself so that I could escape Alignon with your body Sarah. I watched him being beaten senseless by the Shadow Broker's top assassin while I flew away... with your body." Liara was trembling now as she fought to keep her composure.

"Okay... Let's go." Sarah sighed in understanding and motioned towards the waiting shuttle. "Just... do me one favor..." Sarah added as the pair walked.

"I've done lots of favors for you Sarah..." Liara's response was almost a tease and brought a smirk to Sarah's face.

"Well then do me another... and try to keep an open mind when you meet the rest of my crew." Sarah tried not to laugh as she made the request, knowing that even this would not prepare Liara for what she was about to see.

"I will try... but... I don't see why... oh goddess!" They had reached the shuttle now and Liara recoiled in horror as she saw what was seated inside. In the corner sat Legion, the geth mobile platform was looking directly at the pair and Liara was staring back in wide eyed terror. "Sarah! That... what is... A Geth? I don't understand..." Liara was flustered and nervous, even as the others in the shuttle shared knowing smiles between themselves and Grunt let out a snort of impatience.

"The favor remember? Need to keep an open mind T'soni, this is a multilateral mission with a diverse crew." Sarah was reminding Liara of the mission statement the human Spectre had used to justify allowing aliens aboard the original Normandy. "This is Legion, 'they' are an... emissary... from the real geth."

"Legion... real geth? I just don't understand..." Liara shook her head as she stepped into the shuttle, keeping herself as far away form Legion as she could.

"Look, why don't you sit down and talk to them a while. I'm sure they won't mind giving you the grand explanation... it'll probably take the whole trip." Sarah tried to sound re-assuring as she ushered Liara over to a seat next to the geth mobile platform. "Legion, this is Liara T'soni, try to answer any questions she has in the same way you'd answer them for me." Liara could barely contain her surprise as Sarah Shepard spoke to the geth as if it were a person, or even an acquaintance.

"T'soni, Liara, Doctor, crewmate of Normandy SR1. Daughter of Matriarch Benezia. We are Legion, a terminal of the Geth." Legion began as it offered it's hand to Liara in a gesture of friendship.

"I see... well... hello... Legion." Liara said slowly as she gingerly took the offered hand, shaking it quickly before pulling away.

"Can't wait to see how she gets along with EDI." Garrus observed with no small amount of sarcasm. This illicited a round of laughter from everyone in the shuttle except Legion and Liara who were already diving into the topic of real geth.

"Joker, is the Normandy ready for launch?" Satisfied that the situation was not going to become unstable, Sarah was now focusing her attention on the mission ahead.

"No but it can be by the time you get back if EDI lends a hand. We were supposed to be preparing to do maintenance work on the Normandy incase you forgot." Joker's usual sarcasm brought a smirk to Sarah's face.

"I didn't forget but plans change, just make sure we're ready to go as soon as we get onboard." the Human Spectre did her best to sound authoritative.

"Aye aye, we'll be ready to go by the time you get back Commander." Joker acknowledged as he set to work at the Normandy's cockpit. "I had a feeling this would happen when she called in the reinforcements." He said to himself with a sigh.

* * *

><p>************ I, Human ************<p>

* * *

><p>Liara and Legion were so caught up in their discussion that neither bothered to disembark the shuttle once it had boarded the Normandy. Having already obtained the navigational data that Joker needed, Sarah decided not to disturb them. The Normandy itself was cleared for departure with some assistance from EDI to clear up maintenance scheduling concerns. The ship left Nos Astra without further incident and Joker informed his Commander that the trip to their new destination would take several hours. Upon adamant insistence from Doctor Chakwas, Sarah resigned herself to spending the majority of the flight in the medical bay. She did her best to avoid the topic of having fallen almost three stories on top of everything else but the bruises along her left side spoke volumes.<p>

"Honestly Commander, I told you to take it easy for the next several days, cracking a rib and getting shot on the OTHER side of your body doesn't exactly cut it." The elder doctor's motherly tone was as much accusatory as it was concerned.

"I did my best out there, really, you should be glad this is all I walked away with after fighting a Spectre." Sarah couldn't help but feel a swell of pride for herself as she finished.

"Well I daresay that luck had a great deal to do with it considering how reckless you've become lately." Chakwas admonished her patient with a frown. Wincing slightly at the accusation, Sarah knew that her Doctor was right. The older woman had not been the only one to point out that she was reckless in combat lately and the injuries were starting to stack up faster than her body could heal.

"All right Doctor you've made your point, how about we compromise? We'll Say after our next stop, I take a long vacation from firefighting and give myself time to recover. Is that good enough?"

"Good enough, Commander, although if I didn't know just how important this trip is for you personally I'd confine you to the medical bay for internal bleeding and cracked bones. As it is, you should be thankful that your skin is a biosynthetic compound that allows for rapid distribution of..."

"Yeah I know, I know, no need to remind me of it." Sarah suddenly became hostile as she cut off Chakwas from reminding her of just how inhuman she really was. The fact that her skin and even her bones had built in micro conduits for rapid distribution of medigel was only one of many reminders that she was no longer a 'human being' in the scrictest sense. Laying back on the exam table, Sarah shut her eyes and tried to clear her mind of the foul mood this topic always put her in. Then a new thought crept into her mind and she found a sense of dread building up in her gut as she wondered how exactly Liara would handle knowing about her.

As if on cue, the door to the Med-bay slid open with a hiss of pressure locks and Sarah sat up, startled to see Liara standing there. She unconciously brought a hand to her chest to make sure the thin covering that hid her skin from plain sight was doing it's job. She had been wearing it to facilitate her doctor's examination but it was little more than a paper thin sheet draped loosely over her front. The Asari had a concerned look on her face but at seeing Sarah, she quickly averted her gaze, trying to hide the slight blush of embarresment that followed.

"Hello Doctor T'soni, was there something you needed me for?" Chakwas broke the moment of silence casually, a small smirk on her face at having picked up on the moment of awkwardness.

"Doctor Chakwas?" Liara blinked with surprise upon realizing who was greeting her but quickly regained her composure. "Well yes... and no... I was just coming to see how your current patient is doing. It's a surprise to see you here though Doctor, I thought you were with the Alliance." Liara couldn't hold back her curiosity at seeing such a familiar face aboard a Cerberus vessel.

"Yes well... you're not the only one my dear." The elderly woman chuckled softly before moving to stand next to Sarah and push her back gently onto the table. "It was not an easy decision, I assure you, but as you can see the Commander needs my expertise. With a growing frequency I might add. Since you're curious, she still is suffering minor internal bleeding from her earlier gunshot wounds, in addition, she has added a cracked rib and a clean bullet hole through her left arm. I've already agreed to let her off the ship to help you with whatever in the world is so important but after this I am insisting on total rest for at least a week. Even with her biosyth..."

"Ahh right, you get the picture anyway Liara. It's nothing too serious really. Slap a little medigel on the bullet hole and I'll be ready to go." Sarah cut off Chakwas quickly, trying to sound dismissively casual while giving her doctor a pointed 'not now' glare.

"Nothing serious?" Liara was not going to be dissuaded so easily having already heard internal bleeding and cracked rib on the list of injuries. "Internal bleeding is a very serious matter among most species I know of, even humans! Doctor, what else were you going to say? Something about biosynthetics?" Liara sounded confused as she looked back and forth between the two human women.

Giving Sarah a shrug and turning away, Chakwas moved to leave the room. Meanwhile, Sarah sat up and stared down at the floor for long moments while waiting for the tell tale hiss that would indicate the door had closed.

"Liara look... you might want to sit down for this." Sarah almost mumbled the words before looking up and locking eyes with the Asari in front of her.

"Sit down? I don't understand, just tell me what is going on will you?" Liara was looking worried now as she tried to make sense of why the doctor had left and why internal bleeding was being brushed off as a casual injury.

"Fine.. look... I..." Sarah took a deep breath and steeled herself, willing out the determination that had seen her through so many firefights. "I didn't want you to find out about this... not yet anyway..." letting a wry smile play across her face, Sarah relaxed a little and took another breath. "Cerberus didn't just rebuild me, they made... improvements. They won't go into specifics but I've figured a bit out between myself and the doctor. They ran into problems with straight organic tissue reconstruction, so they used biosynthetics. Some cybernetics too..." Sarah cast her eyes down to the floor as she forced herself to continue. "My skin, my bones, my tissue, they were engineered for combat. I have built in microconduits for distrubtion of medigel to allow for rapid healing. My muscles have microfibers that make me almost as strong as a damn Krogan. Hell... my eyes were re-worked to allow for rapid light adjustment and clear vision. I'm... I'm hardly even a human anymore." Sarah wrapped her arms around herself and tried to turn away from Liara, afraid of the Asari's reaction.

"You look quite normal to me... except for that scar on your cheek." Liara had moved close and almost whispered the words. Surprised, Sarah turned back and locked eyes with Liara, relief welling up in her.

"Here I thought you'd be disgusted or terrified of me." Sarah let a small smile crease her face. "The scar was from the collector's... apparently their particle beams are pretty nasty. Chakwas offered to look into skin replacement to fix it but I'm not too worried about it."

"You've been around humans too long Sarah... Incase you've forgotten I'm not exactly a humany myself." Liara said teasingly. For a moment, their surroundings melted away and it seemed as if time had stopped, Liara was standing next to Sarah and they both were staring into eachother's eyes. They unconciously moved closer to eachother, a feeling of heat building up in the space between them. Then a familiar voice cut in and killed the mood.

"Ah, Commander? We're approaching the coordinates Doctor T'soni uploaded to EDI. ETA 5 minutes, you better get ready." It was Joker, and his tone sounded almost apologetic.

"Spying on us again Joker?" Sarah asked with as much amusement as annoyance. Letting a smirk play across her face she put a hand around Liara's shoulder to use the Asari for support as she stood up.

"No ma'am would never think of doing that, just needed to inform you of our timetable."

"Right... well tell Garrus to suit up too, he'll be tagging along for this one. Keep the others on standby." Sarah was already moving to put on the top half of her fatigues as Liara went to wait by the door.

"Aye aye." came Joker's confirmation.

Liara stared openly as the human woman quickly dressed, a small smile on her pale blue face. Sarah put on her ship fatigues with practiced ease and the two made their way out of the med-bay together, heading towards the elevator.

"I'll ahh... need to go by my cabin first, to get into my hardsuit. I guess I'll meet you in the cargo bay? There's a changing room near the elevator and there is a spare hardsuit that should fit you perfectly... I had EDI place a requisition order for it just in case." Sarah did her best to sound casual as she usually did when downplaying her feelings.

"Oh! That reminded me that I need to give thanks to this person EDI before I don't get the chance to. Based on my experiences she does quite alot to assist you on missions and she certainly helped me as well."

Grinning sheepishly Sarah glanced around in hopes none of the passing crewmembers overheard the exchange. A puzzled look came over Liara as she tried to make sense of why Sarah was now staring almost straight up as they waited for the elevator.

"Well EDI, Doctor T'soni says thank you. It's only natural for you to say "you're welcome" in these situations." The reccomendation confused Liara even more and she took a step back in surprise when EDI's holographic image came to life on a small stand next to the elevator door.

"You're welcome Doctor T'soni, it is highly probable that we will work more with eachother in the future."

"You... you're..."

"Liara, this is EDI, she IS the Normandy, for all intents and purposes. She's the onboard AI and believe me when I say that without her we never would've survived even half of our missions against the collectors. Think of her as Joker's copilot." Sarah finished with a measure of pride she found surprising when speaking of a machine.

"I see... well yes, thank you EDI, it's... good to meet you?" Liara was caught off gaurd at the turn of events and it all threatened to be overwhelming. Sarah quickly took over the conversation by stepping into her role as Commander.

"Right, multilateral misison and everything, glad you understand. No time to get accquainted though, we'll be groundside soon. Go get suited up and we'll meet you on the shuttle T'soni." Her tone came off a little colder than she would've liked but it got the message across and Liara shook free of her stupor.


	2. Chapter 2

"Hagalaz... the oceans boil during the day, then snap freeze ten minutes after sundown..." Liara mused almost to herself as the drop shuttle began to vibrate noticeably. They had entered the atmosphere of the planet and even with the state of the art shuttle's powerful mass effect field, the gale force winds outside were making their presence known.

"The Shadow Broker lives in this?" Sarah asked curiously as she glanced out of the shuttle window, all around them a massive storm system raged as they made their way along the twilight band of the planet.

"My scans have revealed a very well hidden transmission signal originating from your destination. You should have a visual of the location soon." EDI interjected herself smoothly as she always did.

"We're still not even in sight of the ground yet... oh, now I see." Sarah moved closer to the window and Garrus and Liara joined her.

"A ship! It's massive... it must move with the storm, completely undetectable unless you know where to look." Liara said with a hint of contempt in her voice.

"EDI, can you find us a place to land?" Sarah forced herself into business mode.

"I cannot, the shuttle bay is locked down, I would require a direct uplink in order to access the ship's network." EDI sounded almost apologetic.

"We'll have to land on the hull and work our way along it till we find a way inside." Liara intoned, putting on her hardsuit helmet and snapping the seal into place.

"That is inadvisable, there is a constant lightning storm where the hot and cold air collide." EDI warned.

Looking from Garrus to Liara Sarah nodded with a sigh as she put on her own hardsuit helmet, snapping it into place. After a moment of suit pressurization she put a hand on her hip and stood upright.

"Not like we have much choice" Sarah shrugged the words almost nonchalantly. "Guess we'll just have to move fast."

The Shadow Broker's vessel was at least a mile long, with four quarter mile wide panels protruding from the back of the ship like massive sails to keep the ship balanced in the endless storm, two above and two below. The elliptical hull was a mess of lightning rods and other equipment, with hardly any place visible to touch down the shuttle even for a moment. Sarah and her companions activated the magnetic soles of their hardsuits and waited patiently at the door. They braced themselves to leave the safety of the shuttle for the hostile environment that awaited them. After several long minutes that felt like hours, the shuttle alarm sounded, telling it's occupants it was time to get out. The door swung up and opened to a small space of clear metal that was almost a walkway near the front of the ship leading back along the top. The small mass effect field surrounding the shuttle kept the three passengers from immediately feeling the effects of the wind. As they gained footing on the larger vessel beneath them and watched their drop shuttle flying away back to the Normandy, they all realized just how powerful the windstorm was. Even their magnetic boots holding them to the hull did little to help them not fall forwards as they followed the walkway.

"I cannot pinpoint it in this lightning, but I am detecting the source of the signal from near the back of the ship." EDI advised them over their suit comm channel. "It appears there is nothing below but maintenance equipment, you will need to continue along the hull to find an entrance near the back shielding."

"Got it, thanks EDI." Sarah acknowledged, and motioned to her team to move forward. The hull of the ship was at least a quarter mile wide itself but on a progressively circular slope. The walkway they were forced to follow lead through and around flaps, solar panels, and two story tall lightning rods. As they moved deeper into the mass of equipment the force of the wind lessened, mainly due to the large flaps covering the hull that vibrated constantly in the strong wind. Even without the the force of the wind making every step a struggle not to fall over, progress was slow. They had only been advancing for minutes and already it seemed like longer. Then Sarah noticed movement ahead of them along their path as small circular coverings swung open from the ship.

"Maintenance Drones." Sarah warned her team through her suit comm channel. Several prefabricated drones came floating out of holes and onto the hull of the ship. There were at least five, each identical spherical constructs that typically performed menial duties like cleanup or repair. As the drones neared the three intruders, each of them extended a small rod like object that crackled with electricity. Not taking any chances, Sarah reached to her back and grabbed her pulse rifle from it's back mount. The gun smoothly uncompacted in her grip as she brought it to bear on the first of the drones and opened fire. Garrus and Liara followed suit and between the three of them, their path forward was clear in a matter of seconds. Sarah kept her gun drawn and ready as they advanced, scanning for more movement.

"Why are they attacking?" Sarah wondered aloud more to herself than to anyone in particular.

"They must think we're debris from the storm." Liara responded quickly.

"Well if they weren't onto us before then they will be wondering why their drones went offline, we better be ready for a welcoming party." Sarah mused as they continued ahead. Their path lead them back and forth across the sloping top of the massive ship, making their trip that much longer. After clearing another grouping of drones, Sarah proved herself right as she spotted the approaching heads of two Shadow Broker soldiers. The pair was moving towards them along the walkway. The three ducked into cover as best they could, waiting for clear shots on their approaching targets. The trap was over nearly before it began, as Garrus and Sarah opened fire and shattered the two surprised soldier's shields, Liara let out a grunt of exertion and used her biotics to send both of them flying straight up and into the storm. The last they saw of the two hapless bodies was each flailing helplessly as the gale force winds carried them up and away from the ship.

"That works." Sarah laughed as she motioned Garrus forward, the two advancing with Liara close behind.

Within a minute, their forward progress ground to a halt as more patrols began advancing on them and were joined by Loki security mechs. The mechs always reminded Sarah of life sized string puppets both in the way they looked and the way they moved. The mechs had no protection from Liara's biotics and she focused most of her attention on them as they seemed to spring out of storage compartments all along the pathway they were forced to follow. The fight wore on into long minutes as the three pressed back farther and farther along the top of the ship. The random soldier or two on patrol was rapidly becoming small teams and squads grouping up to put up better resistance. Eventually, the winding path lead them all the way across the ship and threatened to disappear off the side before Sarah spotted a small stairwell leading down to a narrow catwalk that ran along the side of the ship. The catwalk had no cover and barely any railing to speak of to prevent them from going off the edge out into open air. From here, Sarah could see large wings jutting up at periodic intervals along the ship's body and the endless storm raging around them.

"Okay... looking down was clearly a mistake." Liara said with fear tinging her voice as she pressed herself against the inner edge of the catwalk. The three moved as quickly as they could to avoid being trapped in such an exposed location. Ahead of them, the catwalk seemed to end abruptly and then Sarah noticed a small pressure door leading inside the ship. She motioned to Liara and Garrus and the three made their way inside. The doorway lead them to yet another suspended catwalk, but this one inside the ship. The sight before them was nothing short of impressive and all three paused. Before them and stretching along out of sight in both directions was an endless row of energy panels. Each one moved up and down in turn as if part of a wave in an ocean, distributing charges from the numerous lightning rods overhead towards the back of the ship. The hum of the energy and the moving panels was constant and audible even inside their hardsuits.

"This ship is incredible!" Liara marveled aloud. "It must have taken decades to build in secret."

"I wonder what happened to the contractors." Sarah mused with no small amount of sarcasm.

"I think we can guess." Liara replied pointedly.

The catwalk led them along the inner hull for a few hundred feet, following the countless energy panels and their endless cycle. There was no sign of any access point for the ship proper.

"Navigating this storm is brutal. If the ship's engines stop even for a moment... At least the Shadow Broker would go down with us." Liara finished her own thought, realizing that such an idea was too dangerous to consider at the moment.

"That's comforting." Sarah quipped teasingly.

"Look, motion dampeners!" Liara pointed below them. "I bet you can't even feel the storm inside the ship." Beneath the catwalk in both directions were numerous motion dampeners, their cylindrical casings giving off a bluish glow hinting at the element zero cores they housed. The catwalk lead them to another access hatch that would lead back outside and Sarah decided it was a better option than risking a firefight in such a sensitive area with no escape route available. Taking the lead, she lead her team outside and onto another catwalk, this one dipped low, passing along the underside of the rounded hull for a short distance before sloping upwards and leading them back up to the top. This far back along the ship, the wind was barely a concern anymore. Their route cut across the ship again, going towards the other side in a now almost predictable pattern. The three barely crested the sharp upward slope however, when rifle fire greeted them. Again their progress slowed dramatically as they were forced to advance carefully the along walkway, using the various flaps and equipment around them for cover when they could.

More long minutes passed as they traversed the ship back over to the other side, adding another six to their kill count along the way. The walkway cut back towards the back of the ship again just short of the steep slope of the outer edge and Sarah was silently thankful to not have to traverse another catwalk. Instead, five more Loki mechs and a pair of guards came around a grouping of large flaps ahead and opened fire. Clearing away the opposition quickly, the three pressed ahead. This far back along the ship, the flaps and solar panels gave way to large piping and support structures that made for useful cover. Again, the pathway cut back across the top of the ship but this time they were greeted by a squad of broker agents led by a pair of asari biotics. All too aware of the dangers a biotic posed in this environment Sarah and her team broke line of sight quickly and nodded to each other to confirm they all were sharing the same thought. Moving quickly, Sarah broke cover first for a short moment, not allowing her shield to broken by incoming fire as she focused the first biotic. Just behind her Garrus broke cover himself and moved to another postion while firing, finishing off the first asari's shield. Liara revealed herself, pushing the Asari up into the air forcefully. The tandem action was perfectly timed and took only seconds, leaving none of them exposed long enough to be at risk. The second Asari fell back into cover quickly, her confidence broken as she fired wildly around the corner of some piping she was using for cover. The rest of her team fell quickly as Sarah and Garrus advanced, Liara picking off their targets easily with her biotics.

The tactic of breaking a target's shielding to expose them to biotic energy became almost a game to the three and neither Sarah nor Garrus even bothered actually killing their targets. The sight of watching broker agents flying helplessly away from the massive ship into the deadly storm was much more gratifying for them. When the second asari finally worked up the courage to break cover for an attack, it was too late. Her calls for backup went unheeded as her team was already dead and she soon joined them under the concentrated fire of two assault rifles and a very powerful biotic. Their path clear for the moment, they continued up to the wide top of the ship, only to find their route was a dead end. The pathway they had followed lead them straight into a very large and very wide lightning capacitor that jutted out from the ship at an angle and went up almost two stories. Letting out a sigh of frustration, Sarah began to look back the way they came for something she had missed.

"This lightning rod is on a rail!" Liara pointed out with excitement. "Do you see a switch anywhere?"

The three looked around quickly and Sarah found just what they needed, a manual control lever in a depressed access panel next to the obstruction. With an application of strength, Sarah pulled the lever out until it clicked and retracted itself. A loud mechanical humming resounded next to them and the Lighting rod retracted itself in sections, finally revealing their way forward. A catwalk suspended above an exposed section of the energy panels they had seen earlier. To either side the energy panels moved in their endless wave and electricity crackled dangerously close to them.

"Not even a guard rail. I bet the Broker's agents love patrolling the hull." Sarah quipped dryly as the three moved at a quick pace towards the upwards slope that would lead them back to the relative safety of the hull.

"At least the view is nice." Liara replied with a bit of sarcasm.

Their progress finally bore fruit as they moved out of the depressed catwalk area and into an enclosed space several hundred feet across. There were several other maintenance paths leading further back along the hull on either side but directly ahead was a small ramp leading down to a large and wide pressure door.

"There!" Liara called excitedly. "That hatch should lead us into the ship." Sarah and Garrus took up covering positions as Liara made her way down the short ramp to the doorway. "It's locked... Hang on, I've got a bypass shunt program that can crack it." Liara activated her omnitool and began working the keypad display on her forearm while interfacing with the doorways holo display. A new holodisplay appeared on the doorway as Liara activated her program.

"Should've just brought Legion with us." Sarah said aloud but more to herself than anyone else. "How long will it take?" She asked Liara pointedly.

"I don't know Sarah, I've never broken into the Shadow Broker's base before! Well... not this one anyway." Liara's response was agitated as she kept her focus on starting up the program.

"Incoming!" Garrus called out as he moved to take cover on the rampway they had originally came from. Sarah held her position at the top of the ramp where Liara was as Broker agents came into view on both sides of them.

"You're sure that shunt will work?" Sarah called quickly, sparing a glance down at Liara while forcing the enemy back with bursts from her rifle.

"It's illegal even on Illium! It didn't come with a warranty." The sarcasm in Liara's voice was obvious.

"But you tested it right?" Sarah replied, changing out a thermal clip in her rifle as even more soldier's appeared. Liara moved away from the doorway to join the fighting, her program running automatically now.

"Here come more of them!" Liara replied, her response gave Sarah pause and she looked straight at Liara who was using the opposite side of the rampway as cover.

"Tell me you tested it!" It was Sarah's turn to let agitation creep into her voice.

"No time to talk!" Liara replied shortly as she let her biotics flare up. The pressing matter of incoming rifle fire forced Sarah to drop the issue for a moment.

The approaching broker agents were being forced to enter into the depressed area from small walkways on either side, making them easy targets for Sarah and Garrus. Between the two of them and Liara's biotics they were clear of immediate danger in under a minute. Sarah spared a glance down at the doorway and saw what she could only guess was the shunt program still running.

"Liara?" Sarah called, her question going unspoken but understood.  
>"I'm sure it won't be much longer!" The young asari replied even as she ducked a shot from more agents approaching from the other side.<p>

"Remember the old days when you could just slap omnigel on everything?" Sarah almost laughed the question as she fired a few quick bursts of her rifle before popping back into cover.

"That security upgrade made alot of people unhappy." Liara quipped with amusement as even Garrus let out a short grunt of a laugh. "Look out! more on the way!" She called, pointing behind Sarah as two more agents came running into the open area.

The three were making quick work of the Broker's forces as the groupings of soldiers were interspersed and seemingly disorganized. They appeared to be frantic in their effort to get the intruders away from the doorway and it was making the job that much easier for Sarah and her team. In her gut, Sarah could feel the lack of combat sense in the broker agents. She guessed that the soldiers on this ship were hardly ever rotated and that lack of practical combat experience was now causing a haphazard response to their threat.

"Rocket drones! Front of the ship!" Liara called and Garrus broke cover, running for their position as two antipersonnel rockets impacted on the rampway he had been using seconds before. Sarah turned and sighted the targets, Several tripod like machines that were little more than a grouping of thrusters with a turret mounted on top. Sarah quickly recompacted her assault rifle and drew out her long rifle, using brief seconds to sight her targets and fire. The semi-automatic rifle sent rounds flying on the exact angle the drone Sarah targeted was firing it's rocket at, creating a double explosion while Liara forced up a quick barrier to deflect the rocket fire from the two other drones bearing down on them. Garrus joined Sarah and the two split their targets, shooting down the drones at nearly the same time.

"Their attacks are disorganized! They'd be more effective if they attacked all at once!" Liara summarized with an air of confidence.

"Please don't give the mercs ideas!" Groaned Sarah reproachfully as she immediately scanned the area for any more attackers. Re-compacting her sniper rifle in favor of her assault rifle and changing out to a fresh thermal clip. Using the break in combat, Garrus repositioned himself back near the opposite ramp while Liara moved back down to check the doorway.

"Shepard, this looks like a big one!" Garrus called out a warning as Broker agents came rushing into the area from both walkways.

"You just had to give them tactical advice!" The sarcasm is Sarah's voice was obvious as she pulled out a pair of fusion grenades from her belt clip, tossing each low along the ground to either side of her into the groupings of approaching soldiers.

"But now there will be fewer inside to deal with!" Liara replied almost apologetically as the small disc-like weapons exploded, sending several agents flying backwards.

"S'yeah.." Sarah snorted contemptuously, "Keep dreaming T'soni." The human spectre motioned to her right and both her and Garrus opened fire in that direction first before rapidly changing left, keeping both groupings of soldiers off balance while Liara rejoined Sarah, letting her biotics force back the agents not already caught by the explosions. Overhead, more rocket Drones were moving into view and Sarah swore quietly under her breath as her assault rifle clicked audibly. She had no more thermal clips and she re-compacted the weapon onto her backmount, drawing her Phalanx pistol smoothly. Liara gave Garrus cover as he ran again to their position, avoiding rocket fire and diving into a roll as his own shield shattered. From below, a loud blaring alarm sounded as the pressure door slid open.

"There! the hatch is open!" Liara called excitedly. Garrus was already standing in the open doorway shooting down incoming rockets. The pair rushed down the ramp and through the entryway. The heavy door slammed shut behind them, cutting off their pursuers.

* * *

><p>************ Mouth of Hell ************<p>

* * *

><p>Now safely inside the massive ship, the three took a moment to take stock of their situation. Sarah was the first to remove her hardsuit helmet, noticing quickly that the heavy storm just outside was already virtually inaudible. The interior of the ship was clean and messy at the same time. While there was no garbage or visible clutter, there were wires, tubes, and piping that spilled out of access panels and patched into other panels further along. The hallway gave off an impression of many years of in house repair work done over the course of the ships history. The trio had only seconds to take stock of their surroundings as heavy boot falls echoed down the corridor ahead of them. At least five more soldiers appeared from deeper in the ship and took up defensive positions. They used the bulkhead and doorframes for cover while firing wildly towards the Specter and her team.<p>

"Hold your positions no matter the cost!" The voice was a deep, rumbling bass masked by a heavy electronic filter. It had blared out over the ships Internal speakers.

"The Shadow Broker..." Liara almost whispered and Sarah could feel a swell of hate and anger building inside the asari's mind. Quickly and firmly, Sarah put a hand on Liara's shoulder and turned her so they were looking face to face, barely an inch apart using a door frame as cover from incoming accelerated rounds and an occasional rocket.

"T'soni you better stow the personal grudge right here and now before I radio for an early evac." Liara's eyes widened even as her biotics flared up in involuntary but angry protest. Sarah held up a hand and continued, stern mask firmly in place. "You said yourself this is a rescue mission at present, as such your priority and mine is to pursue and secure the hostage. We will NOT go chasing some half cocked revenge. If and when Liara... remember... if and when the oppurtunity arises, we won't hesitate." Without warning Sarah had slipped back into that all too familiar role of lover as she held Liara by the back of the head, letting their foreheads touch briefly. The contact gave Liara a shock as she felt Sarah's mind, the emptiness and fear inside the Specter's heart. She marveled at how well the human hid her pain behind the needs of command. Swallowing her protests and regaining her composure, Liara nodded while keeping her eyes locked with Sarah's.

"Good..." Sarah nodded and stepped back quickly, realizing how sudden the contact had been. "Garrus, go for the guys with rocket launchers... I'll advance first." In that moment she was back to being in command. The role of leading in a game of death was much easier than trying to face that burning question that was still tearing at Sarah's mind. She could not allow her fears or her wandering thoughts any room for consideration until the shooting stopped. Drawing a few steady breaths to get back into the rhythm of the firefight, Sarah gauged her opponents based on their shot patterns and firing intervals. Garrus was already trading quick volleys down the long corridor, streams of accelerated slugs driving him back each time he broke cover to fire. Nodding to Liara, the Specter broke cover herself just as the latest volley ended, making a quick dash for the next outcropping of bulkhead she could use as cover. Progress into the ship's interior was slow at best. After almost 10 minutes of carefully timed firing, ducking, and advancing down the narrow corridor, the gunfire ended. The last of 24 Shadow Broker soldiers that had been defending this particular area of the ship fell dead with little notice from the invading trio. With no gunfire present, the three took the chance to take in their surroundings closely. Several doorways and junctions of the ship were already sealed off however they appeared to be in a maintenance corridor which meant easy access overall to the ship. After a minute or two of walking the group came to a large alcove with a cable nearly the width of a body running overhead. Transparent portions of the cable revealed glowing white energy flowing inside the cable.

"A interface console... maybe I can get an uplink with EDI so we can figure out how the hell to get around this ship. Sarah moved into the alcove and accessed a holo interface then worked to link up with her omni-tool.

"Look at the energy running through these cables. The Shadow Broker must have threaded his entire information network through this ship. The power to run it must be tremendous." Liara commented almost in awe of the raw energy flowing inside the cable.

"Link established Commander," came EDI's acknowledgment of Sarah's efforts. "I have accessed the ship's layout, I will create a direct route to the detention block." The AI knew exactly what they wanted to hear and the three looked to their side as a doorway hissed open further along the dimly light corridor. With EDI's admittance to the ship network, their progression quickened greatly. All around them bulkhead doors sealed shut as others quickly hissed open, blocking off a large number of the mercenary forces from pursuit. After several minutes of rapid walking, the three fell into breaching formation outside a slightly larger door frame.

"Commander, I am detecting two guards positioned just inside the room, three others are rapidly approaching your location, I cannot delay them." EDI's smooth, firm voice had grown increasingly familiar to Sarah over the past months she had spent relying on the AI's abilities.

"Good work." Came the humans short, quiet reply. Sarah gripped her geth rifle tightly with one hand while using her other hand for signals to her team. She directed Liara to follow her into the guardroom before signaling Garrus to deal with the reinforcements.

Liara moved into position behind Sarah, placing a hand on the Spectre's shoulder in practiced fashion to signal readiness. Sarah took in several breaths, steadying her wandering thoughts. She would never admit it but the past several minutes without any combat had put her into an idle state, leaving her mind enough room to think dangerous thoughts again. The Specter gripped her assault rifle tightly with both hands and then held her breath for a moment as she willed her body into action. Slipping Liara's touch at her shoulder, she entered the room, immediately dropping to one knee and sliding left to avoid a pair of accelerated rifle rounds coming from opposite sides of a large security desk at the opposite end of the guardroom. Sarah didn't stop her momentum as she turned to kick off the ground and roll, using the movement to close distance as well as avoid the gunfire tracking her. Liara seized the opportunity to enter the room, using her biotics she had both soldiers in the air in less than three seconds. The two soldiers were caught off guard completely and dropped their guns as they flailed about helplessly, dying in another three seconds as both Sarah and Liara fired rounds into their heads with precision. Liara covered the distance across the room to the security station, and Sarah followed. Again, the Specter established an uplink to EDI via her omni-tool and the AI made quick work of opening up access to the Shadow Broker's personal prison.

A heavy pressure door just beyond the security desk slid open quietly, Liara and Sarah were just moving to step inside when an explosion erupted in the hallway followed by the heavy sound of rifle fire. The noise caused Liara to gasp involuntarily as she realized she was shaking in anticipation. Sarah herself had barely stirred but was watching the asari critically, carefully gauging her attitude and actions to try and understand Liara's feelings. The pair entered the doorway, to find themselves on a raised walkway that overlooked several small cells with transparent ceilings. None of the cells were occupied but at the end of the walkway was another room filled with monitors and tech equipment. In the center of the room was a full body restraint chair. In the chair itself was Feron, the drell 'stranger' that Liara had devoted two years of her life after losing Shepard to finding. The drell was held tightly in place in his chair by electrical cuffs around his neck, wrists and ankles. From the waist up he had no clothes, thanks to a single light positioned above the chair as if to display a work of art, the numerous bruises, cuts, and scars covering his chest and arms were plainly visible.

"Feron!" Liara gasped with pity plainly audible in her voice. This special room was not partitioned off from the observation area they were in and Liara's voice carried easily to the captive Drell. Stirring, Feron blinked his eyes as if wanting to rub them but kept his limbs still to avoid the electric cuffs sting.

"Liara?" Feron managed weakly in a raspy grating voice that betrayed his youth to Sarah. From his build and voice she thought that he seemed barely older Kolyat.

"Hold on we're getting you out of here!" Liara said almost as much for her own sake as for Feron's as she holstered her pistol. She ran quickly over to a command terminal that sat just outside the short flight of steps leading down into Feron's 'cell'. His room was positioned next to the largest energy cable Sarah had seen yet, the ghostly flow of white energy making up almost the entire wall of the room adding an eerie backdrop to the macabre scene.

"No! Wai- AGHHHH!" Feron's warning was cut short in a cry of pain as Liara's hurried attempt to release the captive set off some type of fail safe. The electric cuffs at his neck, wrists and ankles flared up brightly, biting into the dark green skin of Feron causing him to shut his eyes as he cried out.

"Feron!" Liara exclaimed again, full of remorse for her actions. Sarah moved up next to Liara apprehensively, summoning all of her concentration to avoid a loss of control that would have her acting like a spoiled brat in the middle of an enemy base. The captive drell recovered his wits as the cuffs restraining him subsided in their assault. He locked eyes first with Liara then with Sarah and the Specter could see clearly in that moment that despite two years of clearly arduous tortures, the spirit of this drell had not yet been broken.

"What the hell is the Broker trying to do to you?" Sarah asked, surprising herself at the barely concealed anger in her voice. It only took her a moment to realize that the powerful emotional energy building in Liara was influencing her own emotional state. This sudden closeness only caused her to feel even more alone and uncertain, a fact she processed and stowed away for later acknowledgment.

"The equipment is sensitive to tampering..." Feron admonished Liara weakly. "This chair is plugged into the Broker's information network. You'll have to shut off the power first. Pull me out now, and my brain cooks." His voice was gaining strength by the moment as if he had been quietly saving a secret reserver of willpower and physical strength for just this moment.

"EDI, what can you do for me." Sarah quickly queried, expecting nothing less than a positive response.

"I am sorry Commander, I do not have full control of the ship's systems at this time. You will need to access the controls from the primary control console.

"Feron, do you know where we can cut the power?" Liara asked with concern still tinging her voice.

"It wont be easy..." He breathed in deeply as if struggling to keep himself centered and lucid. "You'll have to go to central operations."

"Whats the point of this cage..." Sarah said more to herself than to the others.

"I don't- Agh!" Feron began to respond before a surge of energy from the large cable in the wall behind fed out along smaller cables into the chair then into him in the form of electrical shocks all over his body.

"It's a neural grounding rod." Liara turned to Sarah almost impatiently. "The medical equipment is to make sure he doesn't..." Her face contorted in a dark frown as she looked back at Feron, a quiet rage pooling her eyes, "Expire." Shutting her eyes quickly and drawing a silent breath before opening them, Liara quieted her own rage. "We have to shut this place down!" She stated with a finality after transferring Feron's medical data from the command station to her own omni-tool for a quick once over.

"What do you know about the Broker?" Sarah asked with curiosity growing as she realized that she would soon be in contact with an entity whose identity was one of the best kept secrets in the galaxy.

"He did this to me!" Feron replied bluntly, missing the point of the question in his desire to be set free.

"I was hoping you'd know what he is." Sarah replied calmly, reminding herself not to become short tempered with the torture victim.

"I never got a good look... but he's big." Feron relaxed as he realized the point of the question. "The guards are terrified of him." He locked eyes with Shepard pointedly.

"A Krogan?" Liara interjected herself smoothly, her mind already working at the possible species matching what little she had been given.

"I don't know, but I've heard that not everyone that visits his office comes back out." Feron replied, shifting his gaze. Sarah fought the urge to grab Liara and shield her from the eyes of the Drell that had stolen her away. Instead, she channeled her unstable emotions into her voice as she fell back into her role as a Council Specter.

"If the Broker left you alive for us to find then he has no idea how dangerous we are." Cool confidence oozed in Sarah's voice as she spoke loudly, hoping that her new adversary would be listening, wherever he was.

"Don't underestimate him! He prepares for everything!" Feron admonished. "Central operations is just down the hall. You know the Shadow Broker will be waiting for you, right?"

"I'm counting on it!" Sarah replied smoothly, her tomboyish grin of casual confidence squarely in place.

"We'll be back for you Feron!" Liara added quickly as the pair turned to head through the doorway, where Garrus now waited quietly.

"I'll try not to go anywhere..." Feron managed a weak smile at his own attempt at humor. Cutting into the levity, the Shadow Brokers Deep, electronically filtered voice rumled over the ships loudspeakers again.

"I want all teams to outpost C!" It was a short, concise command but it betrayed the desperate nature the information trader was in. He was amassing anything he had left for a final defensive stand against the oncoming storm of retribution Liara T'soni and her allies were about to visit upon him.

* * *

><p>************ Circle Chase ************<p>

* * *

><p>Sarah nodded to Garrus and Liara, the two falling into formation behind her as they moved back out into the dimly lit corridors of the ship. With EDI's guidance and several short minutes, they found themselves negotiating a pair of short flights of stairs which in turn led to a small security checkpoint. Thanks to EDI's control over the ship's doorways, they encountered only a single guard taking position behind his desk with a pistol. Sarah fought down the brief moment of pity she felt for the hapless soldier as Liara flung him and his desk like toys into the air while Garrus made quick work of him. The trio moved past the dead soldier and through the open doorway beyond. The doorway led them to a long, well-lit corridor with a much cleaner feel to it than the rest of the ship, attributed mainly to the lack of cables snaking across the floor. At the end of the corridor was a final, simple pressure door which slid open quietly to reveal a very large, very open circular room. Large intricately carved support columns encircled the room at regular intervals creating a shadowed outer circle and a very bright inner circle lit by the same ghostly white energy seen throughout the ship swirling as if in a pool, visible through the thick transparent material of the ceiling.<p>

Waiting calmly at the edge of the ring of light in between the support columns at the far end of the room was a dark, very bulky figure. The figure was seated in a very large high backed chair with it's arms calmly folded in front of it on a designer desk . The figure made several quick motions with it's hand and the holodisplays that had formed a horseshoe around the chair and desk vanished. Sarah, Liara, and Garrus stepped into the center of the room, spreading out to cover the seated figure from all three sides, Liara taking up the left side of the room as Garrus moved to the right. All three warriors had their weapons drawn and aimed directly at the head of the large figure before them. From Sarah's left, Liara's biotics flared and formed a constant aura encasing her body in it's own pool of ghostly energy. Sarah spared Liara a quick glance and focused all of her willpower towards the asari with a single word, wait. Liara blinked for a moment and drew in a quick breath before her biotic energy died away. Focusing her attention back on the seated figure Sarah realized what Liara had already decided. This was the Shadow Broker.

Taking advantage of her re-engineered eyesight, Sarah took stock of the entirely unknown species of alien seated before her. The being wore a loosely fitted business suit which almost reminded her of the gangsters seen in old vids of the 20th. While roughly humanoid in nature, the being was very large, easily almost six feet tall while seated. It's rough, leathery skin was a deep hue of red that reminded her of blood, traces of white tinged the outline of what she guessed was it's mouth. What passed for a mouth reminded her greatly of how a dog's mouth appeared except with more teeth. It was a vertical row of razor sharp fangs which diverged in two directions forming a chin of sorts before both sides closed along the lower jaw on either side of it's face. The being's eyes numbered at least eight. Black pools of midnight each set into a lidless partition of skin, four along either side of it's face. The Broker tilted it's head to the side slightly and in the reflected light Sarah saw that one of the eyes on either side of it's face were larger than the rest and actually did blink. Two ebony horns jutted out from the back of it's crested head, they curved slightly as they each reached almost two feet into the air. It's hands, resting calmly on the smooth table surface were closed into fists so she could not see if anything was being held or concealed. The creature made a slow sweep of the room with it's head, eyeballing first Garrus, then Liara, then Shepard.

"Here for the drell? Reckless... even for you Commander." The deep, rumbling grate of the calm, emotionless voice surprised Sarah for the space of a second as her curiosity grew. Drawing a quick breath to keep herself focused, Sarah allowed her mask of confidence to fall into place.

"That bombing on Illium wasn't exactly subtle." She appeared to relax, hoping to use a conversation to pull out anything she could use from this wholly unknown enemy before her. From her left, Sarah could feel the quiet burning rage building inside Liara

"Extreme, but necessary." The Broker replied flatly, the casual disregard for the situation before him evident in not only his voice but behavior.

"No it wasn't!" Liara shot back angrily, her face was contorted into a mask of rage for a moment before she willed herself to stay in control. "Neither was caging Feron for two years!" She finished icily, keeping her phalanx pistol aimed.

"Dr. T'soni," The Broker almost seemed to take a bemused tone to it's voice as it's bulky head turned to look at her. "Your interference caused all this." His voice became tinged with venom as the humor vanished. "Feron betrayed me when he handed you Shepard's body. The drell is simply paying the price." The Broker took on an air of finality as if his decision on the matter was clearly the proper decision for the situation.

"Someone was bound to come after you for working with the Collectors." Sarah's own hatred for the Broker rekindled itself as she was reminded of what had almost happened to her thanks to him.

"It was a mutually beneficial partnership." Again the Broker's response was short, concise, almost machine-like in nature. If not for the small inflections of emotion Sarah had heard when he addressed Liara, she would have thought this seated being may have been a puppet or a construct. "Fortunately, the Normandy's IFF will let me salvage the remains of the Collectors' base." Sarah knew the thinly veiled threat was meant to goad her into action as well and she checked herself, fighting the urge to appear shocked or ask how the Broker knew as much as he did.

"Be smart, let Feron walk out with us." Shepard suggested with calm confidence, not allowing any signs of her emotions to appear outwardly.

"You won't be walking out at all." The Broker replied, all pretense of civility vanished for a moment in the tone of it's voice. It's empty hollow eyes locked with Sarah's and for a moment she prepared for action.

"You're quite confident for someone with nowhere left to hide." Liara interjected herself as her pride took over for a moment. She had fallen for the Broker's verbal trap. Without even looking at her the Broker allowed it's gaze to fall on Garrus.

"You travel with fascinating companions Doctor." There was nothing in the rumbling bass of the Broker's grating voice anymore except casual indifference. "It's good you brought Archangel, T'soni. Your friend's bounty is still unclaimed." At this Garrus simply let what passed on turians as a grin crease his angular face, his mandibles revealing his own sharp teeth.

"You're not putting a hand on anyone!" Liara shot back hotly, a frown crossing her features briefly as she waited for her Commander's order to act.

"It's pointless to challenge me, asari. I know your every secret, while you fumble in the dark." The Broker's gaze shifted back to Liara and it's midnight black eyes stared at her.

"Is that right?" Liara's voice took on an air of cool superiority as it had on Illium. She seemed to relax as she looked up and down at the Shadow Broker for the space of several seconds. "You're a yahg, a pre-spaceflight species quarantined to your home world for massacring the Council's first contact teams." She made the statement with all the calm confidence she could manage to avoid betraying her true state of mind. "This base is older than your planet's discovery, which probably means you killed the original Shadow Broker sixty years ago, then took over." She continued, her mind working quickly to deconstruct the illusion of mystery the Shadow Broker had relied upon for so long. "I'm guessing," She paused just for a moment as if she had to consider the possibilities for dramatic effect. "you were taken from your world by a trophy hunter who wanted a slave... or a pet." She said the last part with her voice full of scornful disdain. "How am I doing?" She teased, a confident smile playing across her lips even as her eyes burned with seething hatred.

Wordlessly, the bulky mass of the Shadow Broker stiffened as it's arms unfolded and it's fists opened. Placing it's palms calmly on the desk the large figure stood up, straightening out to well over ten feet tall. Judging from the size of the creature Sarah guessed that a yahg, as Liara had named it, weighed at least a ton or more. Brief seconds passed as everyone tensed, waiting to see who would be the first to act. Then the Shadow Broker flew into a blur of motion that caught Liara and Garrus off guard. With a fluid motion the large alien creature brought it's right fist smashing into the center of it's stone desk, easily splitting it in two. Taking a step forward the Broker didn't stop it's motion as it reached out with it's left hand throwing half of the desk at Garrus with almost no effort even while using the motion to grab the other half of the desk with it's right hand. This second half was thrown at an unprepared Liara, a loud crash signaled that Garrus had been hit by the heavy office furniture.

Sarah pushed herself into action even as she saw the Broker's intent, sprinting to Liara she leapt into a diving grab and pulled the asari maiden to the ground narrowly avoiding the hurled missile of a desk. Sarah could already hear the heavy footfalls of the Shadow Broker as it siezed the moment like a true warrior, closing the distance between itself and it's prey. Liara and Sarah recovered themselves smartly and split up, moving to the outside of the ring of columns encircling the Broker. For a moment, Sarah heard the footfalls pause and then a deep rumbling roar came bellowing out of the large alien's now fully opened mouth. The Broker keyed in a command to it's omni-tool and the ground at it's feet opened to reveal a very large Revenant assault rifle, a weapon she was used to seeing held by geth primes. The rifle's twin barrels came to life, firing deadly rounds into the column Sarah was using for cover. Liara seized the chance and hit the Broker with all of the substantial biotic energy at her disposal, literally wanting to tear him in half. To her dismay a crackle of static electricity and a small series of backsteps from the Broker revealed to her that he was wearing an extremely powerful shield.

With the break in incoming fire, Sarah took the chance herself and broke cover, firing nearly an entire clip into the Broker's bulbous head. Virtually every round in the forty round clip found their mark but all it had accomplished was pushing the broker back several more steps before he regained his balance and silently took aim, opening fire again. The over sized rounds shot out of his rifle were tearing into the columns, slowly ripping them apart and negating their use as viable cover. Again, Liara broke cover, emptying the clip of her phalanx pistol into the Broker's back, causing him to shift his fire in her direction before the rifle gave an audible click. Grunting angrily the Broker was pushed forward again by more shots from Sarah's assault rifle. Not even bothering to look for cover the Broker kept himself near the center of the room, calmly and smoothly swapping out the thermal clip of his rifle before opening up with a fresh assault of accelerated rounds. Sarah swore under her breath as shrapnel torn out from the column she was using as cover flew over her head while several rounds tore into her shield. By this time Liara had positioned herself directly behind the Broker and assaulted him with a full biotic warp again, ignoring the strain it placed on her as she let the anger coursing through her drive her on.

The biotic attack encased the Massive figure for a moment before the broker's shield shattered. Smiling to themselves as they took aim for the killing blow, both Sarah and Liara paused in concern as the Broker stood motionless almost as if in a pose. Ghostly white energy from the ceiling was flowing down and encasing him in a protective shell. Swearing under her breath Sarah opened fire even as Liara did the same, their bullets bouncing ineffectively off the new kinetic barrier.

"The shield is kinetically sensitive!" Liara stated the obvious through their suit comm channel. "Energy and projectiles are bouncing right off! If this keeps up his shield will be fully regenerated and we cannot even touch him."

"Then we do this the hard way." Sarah replied grimly as she compacted her assult rifle, placing it smoothly on it's backmount. She broke cover and took stock of her motionless opponent for all of a second before breaking into a full run. She could see the Broker's primary eyes blink in what she hoped was some small measure of disbelief on the alien's part. Making full use of her enhanced muscles she leapt into the air and lashed out with as much force as she could manage in her fist. The impact shook Sarah as much as it did the Shadow Broker and both seemed to fall backwards. The broker's new kinetic barrier dissipated but Sarah could see that it's primary shields were already recovering and she pressed her physical attack. Moving swiftly she ducked the wide swing of her opponent and countered with a fierce uppercut that caught the massive alien square in it's jaw. Growling angrily the Broker fell back several more steps and dropped to one knee. Seeing her chance, Sarah rushed forward again, taking another leap meant to attach her to the Broker's large head. The next few moments seemed surreal as she sees a bright orange light flare up underneath her followed by a heavy force impacting her entire body as if she had hit a wall. She realizes the Broker had a personal riot shield in his bag of tricks even as she finds herself flying past her opponent and in between two columns, finally hitting the outer wall of the large chamber with her back. The impact forced the air of her lungs and she groans quietly in pain even as she rolled sideways, her instincts paying off as she dodged follow up gunfire.

Seeing Sarah tossed like a rag doll upset Liara further and she summoned her biotic energy to flare up around her, encasing her in an ever shifting shell of blue energy. She lashed out with her power to assault the Shadow Broker. Anticipating her action, the large orange shield he had just used to throw Sarah is already positioned to guard against the attack. Her biotic energy is broken like a wave on the glowing surface. The shield itself was essentially a projection of highly compressed energy in the shape of a shield. It was extremely durable and could withstand most attacks short of a vehicle mounted mass accelerator or high grade explosive. Liara ducked back into cover to avoid incoming rifle fire as the broker slowly advanced on her, using his shield to prevent her from retaliating. By this time, Sarah began to regain her breath and attacked, forcing the Broker to split it's attention once more under a renewed assault. Sarah could feel the growing frustration in the Shadow Broker's actions as he moved to cover himself and return fire at her. Clearly he had not planned on having the battle be two on one at this stage of his envisioned game.

With the Broker still near the center of the large circular room he again became easy prey for the recovered pair as they worked in unison to stab at him. He had started using the shield to advance on Sarah in an effort possibly to charge her or grab her. Not taking any chances, Sarah simply skirted the outside of the columns while Liara stalled the Broker with quick shots from her Phalanx pistol. Both Sarah and Liara were starting to plan their shots carefully in recognition of what was already a prolonged battle. After another minute, the Broker's body shield shattered again and immediately, the alien froze in place. As before, white ghostly energy poured out of the transparent ceiling and encased the ship's master in a shell of white energy.

Sarah didn't pause for a moment as she stowed her rifle, breaking into a full run while Liara did the same from the opposite side at a slower pace. The Broker's riot shield was still held up even though his body was motionless and Sarah was forced to use her first attack to knock it aside, immediately breaking the white shell encasing the Broker. The massive yahg lashed out using the assault rifle like a club, forcing Sarah to dodge. The rifle was followed closely by the riot shield and Sarah struck back using the full weight of her body in her shoulder. For several moments, Sarah and the hulking form of the Shadow Broker were deadlocked in a pushing contest with the orange glow of the riot shield between them. Then, the Shadow Broker smartly shifted his weight and threw Sarah into the approaching Liara, causing them both to skid back into the columns with a dull thud. Sarah mentally cried out in pain as she realized at least one rib was probably broken from the impact.

Liara brought up a barrier around them even as the Broker's assault rifle opened fire. The hastily erected barrier lasted for the seconds the pair needed to break line of sight. Noticing Sarah favoring her side in quiet pain, Liara's focus broke through her rage and allowed her to think.

"If you can get him to bring up that barrier again I've got an idea." Liara told Sarah quietly to avoid being overheard.

"Roger that." Sarah nodded in understanding and the third round of their prolonged gunfight with Shadow Broker began.

The pair split once more and attacked fiercely, not withholding ammunition anymore. The Broker seemed to also feel the end approaching as he took to charging at Sarah, destroying two of the columns in the room in the process. After another minute of battle, the Broker's body became motionless once more as his body shield broke and white energy moved to encase him. Sarah immediately rushed in, tensing herself for the unexpected. As if on cue, the Shadow Broker let out an angry roar, rushing at Sarah with his riot shield held out in front like a battering ram. Dropping into a quick sideways roll, the human Specter narrowly avoided the charge.

"Now!" Sarah shouted to Liara. The Broker shifted his weight while turning to bring himself to a stop, taking aim with his rifle.

Liara reached up with both arms, her biotic aura flared into a bright swirling aura of cyan and she let out a strained gasp of exertion. The transparent ceiling immediately cracked and Sarah wasted no time in getting out of way as the material shattered, allowing the ghostly white energy to pour down into the room, covering the large form of the motionless Shadow Broker. Letting out a final, angry roar of protest, the Broker's thick, leathery skin began peeling away as the cascade of energy consumed him. After several seconds his roar died away and a device at his waist flared brightly before exploding, breaking apart the both the gathered energy and the Broker's body in a shower of sparks. The explosion knocked Sarah off her feet and left her dazed against a column for the second of glowing smoke remained, floating eerily throughout the room, providing a gentle light in the absence of the ceiling. Emergency seals had fallen into place to prevent further overflow of the ghostly energy. Wasting little time, Liara crossed the room to where Sarah was and held out her hand silently. A weak, gentle smile played across the asari's face and in her dazed state, Sarah didn't even think to refuse the offered hand. Getting to her feet tiredly, Sarah quickly noticed the heavy breathing coming from Liara and the almost pained expression in the maiden's eyes. For several breaths, Sarah and Liara locked eyes with each other, unsure of what to do. Breaking the moment, a loud groan from a pile of rubble nearby signaled that Garrus was finally regaining consciousness. Sarah turned away, leaving Liara looking lost and almost stunned as the Specter walked over to her turian teammate offering him a helping hand. Numbly, Liara moved to follow them as she felt the exhaustion she was experiencing from nearly an hour and a half of combat setting in.

"How're you feeling Garrus?" Sarah tried to hide the amusement tinging her voice as she jogged up to the turian's side. He was still clearly dazed and she had to help him to his feet.

"I think my pride is more damaged than anything else Shepard, I really screwed up." Garrus' training allowed him to recover himself easily and he had already begun berating himself for a perceived mistake.

"Hey... listen..." Sarah took on an almost elder sisterly tone as she squared off with Garrus, looking him directly in the eyes. "You're still alive and according to you the damage is minimal. You should know by now that for me, staying alive is what matters not pride, not honorable tactics, just living period. Now... I need you to get into contact with EDI and begin a sweep of the ship on an optimal route to the hangar bay. I'll follow you soon with Liara after we retrieve Feron." Sarah slipped into her Spectre role easily and allowed her mind to work quickly.

Along the wall that had been behind the Shadow Broker's desk was a very large holodisplay with several dozen audio feeds shown. Without warning, one came to life, breaking Liara out of her musings.

"Shadow Broker, this is Operative Murat. We had a momentary connection failure. Can you confirm status?" The male voice sounded human but was cold and professional regardless of race. Within seconds, several more voices joined in adding their own requests of a status update due to connection loss. Sarah realized that the power must have been interrupted when the ceiling broke, she briefly wondered if Feron had been freed.

"Operative Shora requesting update. Are we still online?" An asari voice called out a request. Liara was now approaching the display of audio feeds as if in a trance, she stared at the large display for several seconds, breathing in a deep breath to clear her mind. Dropping her head, Liara closed her eyes and then took a step forward, reaching out and touching the control panel of the holo projection she entered a short series of commands.

"This is the Shadow Broker. The situation is under control." Through the command console her voice was heard throughout the galaxy as the same, filtered mechanical voice that the trio had heard resounding through the ship during their attack. Even on the ship's internal speakers, the voice rang out. "We experienced a power fluctuation while upgrading hardware." Liara kept her explanation simple and concise, making an effort to sound detached and calm. "It disrupted communications momentarily." The doorway they had used to enter the room hissed open causing both Sarah and Garrus to turn and draw weapons smartly. Feron appeared, a pistol in his had which he smoothly raised and pointed at Liara before freezing in stunned shock. Not noticing the interruption, Liara continued. "However, we are now back online. Resume standard procedures. I want a status report on all operations within the next solar day. Shadow Broker out." Liara finished, touching a few commands into the holo interface before turning back to face her companions and Feron.

"Goddes of oceans... it's you. You... how?" Feron was lost and confused from the turn of events as he tried to make sense of the situation. Letting his facade of strength fall away he holstered his pistol and limped weakly towards Liara.

"Well, everyone who's ever seen him in person is dead, so..." Liara looked directly at Sarah, her deep blue eyes seeming to plead with the human for support in this sudden decision.

"You're... the new Shadow Broker." Feron voiced everyone's thoughts with a slight reverence at the realization.

"Is taking over as the Shadow Broker really a good idea?" Sarah asked with concern as she realized the implications of Liaras new 'job'.

"It was either that or lose everything: his contacts, his trading sources. Those will really help us." Liara said with strain evident in her voice. Sarah could tell that the asari needed her to be ok with the decision. "With the Shadow Broker's information network. I can..." Liara faltered for a moment as she leaned back against the communications console for support. "I can give you... I can..." The asari broke down into silent tears as she covered her face with her hand briefly.

"I'll uh... check the power systems." Feron mumbled quickly as he turned and limped weakly back out of the doorway, followed closely by Garrus after a look and nod from his Commander. The turian and drell vanished from site as the pressure door hissed shut, leaving Sarah alone with Liara. The asari's eyes met with Sarah for only a moment before turning away, trying to hide the stream of tears flowing onto her sky blue skin.

"It'll be nice to have information I can trust... Broker" Sarah made an effort to lighten the mood, earning a brief laugh from Liara as she turned back to face Sarah.

"I'm not sure I'm ready for you to call me that. I'm not sure about any of this. But I had to do it." Liara's voice became serious, her eyes hardening, a look of determination masking her feelings. She managed to stay resolute for all of a few seconds before tears formed in her eyes. Turning away in shame, Liara tried to bury her face in her hands, fighting the urge to sob out loud. Moving towards her quickly, Sarah's own protective nature won out over any misgivings she had as she placed a gentle hand on Liara's shoulder, silently asking her to turn around. Liara turned while wiping tears away, her voice sounded exhausted. "It's over, it's finally... for two years..." Liara couldn't continue as a helpless look had come over her. Sarah pulled Liara close and embraced her, gently rocking back and forth as she did the only thing she could think of to help the asari.

"It's all right now Liara..." Sarah whispered softly, not allowing her hands to wander as she simply held her friend. After a few moments Liara pushed herself away gently just far enough to lock eyes with Sarah, her deep blue eyes searching for something. Without even a word, Liara leaned in close and kissed Sarah lightly, allowing their lips only a short touch. In that moment, everything else melted away and Liara felt Sarah's mind even as Sarah could feel Liara's. They could each see the lonliness, the fear, and the sadness that had filled their hearts. Stepping away, Liara frowned slightly and shook her head, her mind now full of self doubt as to wether or not she even deserved Sarah's attentions after everything she had been responsible for.

"It's been two years. I don't... we're different people. You have your mission, and..." Liara began fumbling for excuses lamely and Sarah caught herself smirking slightly as she realized why Liara was trying to do this. Without another word Sarah forcefully grabbed Liara to silence her before pulling her close gently, tenderly, and allowing her lips to explore Liara's. Their kiss stopped time, melted away the universe, and created an explosion of emotions in Sarah's mind.

With all notion of time lost, the kiss they shared finally ended once Liara needed to gasp for air. Pulling away just enough to look her human companion in the eyes, Liara nodded her head in acceptance. "Ok, Okay..." Liara's exhaustion evident in her voice as she stared at Sarah.

"Okay." Sarah replied, her voice slightly lustful from their kiss as she cupped Liara's cheek in her hand.

"But... let's focus. Let's see what the status of the ship is." Liara gracefully slipped out of Sarah's grasp before moving back to the communications console she had used earlier. Sarah waited patiently, content with watching the now engrossed asari work excitedly at the holo interface in front of her. Although fleeting, that single moment shared in the half light of the Shadow Broker's lair had quieted the fear and uncertainty hidden in Sarah's mind.

"No safeguards or user restrictions. It's like he never anticipated anyone but himself being here." Liara sounded slightly in awe as well as a little dissapointed. "And it's all ours." She added, glancing back towards Sarah with a gentle smile.

"What kind of information are we talking about?" Sarah asked, her curiosity piqued at the possibilities.

"I'm not sure, I'll have to go through his files. Maybe once I do I can give you a better answer." Liara sounded almost excited by the prospect of the task. "All I wanted was to rescue Feron. But... is it wrong that part of me wants this?" Uncertainty crept into her voice as she looked back towrads Sarah. "With the Shadow Broker's network, I can help you. Maybe I can turn this operation into something better." Liara sounded as if she was making the statement to reassure herself as much as to convince Sarah.

"You sure you want to stay here? I could use you on the Normandy." Sarah prodded, hopeful that Liara would realize the implications of the request.

"I have to stay here." Liara shook her head sadly. "We can't pass this up Sarah." Again her eyes pleaded for understanding from the human and Sarah gave in reluctantly with a nod of her head.

"Try not to be a stranger this time." She finally said, sadness in her own voice.

"Small chance of that.." Liara said wistfully as she touched a finger to her lips lightly.

"Look... as much as I'd like to... I can't stay here right now. I've got to get the Normandy back to dock and see about getting repairs for the hull and engines." Sarah took on the casual yet bussiness like tone that Liara knew as the human's mask to hide her feelings. Nodding her head in numbed acceptance Liara realized that she would once again be parting ways from the one being in the galaxy she wanted to spend more time with.

"How long will you be gone?" Liara asked distantly as she began to shift her attention to their newly accquired ship.

"Two solar weeks at least based on the ship's current status... she's still space-worthy but we've been delaying some major repairs for too long now." Letting out a sigh of frustration Sarah touched Liara's shoulder lightly. "I... we.. damnit Liara... we're going to have that talk... just not today." Sarah spoke plainly for a moment as she realized the futility of facing her inner turmoil at present. She realized that Liara was intent on burying herself in the Shadow Broker's network to allow herself time to process everything.

"I've taken care of the remaining guards on the ship, I've sent out a notice stating that you, Garrus, Feron, and myself are to be treated as personal 'guests' of the Shadow Broker." Liara proved Sarah's realization as she set to work, leaning into the large holodisplay and using her hands to input commands to browse through the system.

"Thank you, I'll leave you data for establishing an uplink with EDI so that we can keep in touch easily and share information." Sarah activated her omni-tool and keyed in a few commands which Liara recieved via her own omni-tool before nodding curtly.

"I'll see to it when I can Sarah... I'll take care of the docking hangar from here, come back soon." Nodding over her shoulder, Liara continued her work. Sarah turned smartly and left the room, radioing for a pickup then ordering Garrus to rendevous with her at the hangar. To her surpise and personal misgivings, Feron elected to stay aboard the Broker's ship with Liara.

"Thank you Shepard, for everything." Liara spoke quietly to herself as she allowed her personal facade of strength to fall away, leaving her seated on the floor with her back against the waist high console. Liara shut her eyes tightly as tears came out, doing her best to surpress the sobs.

* * *

><p>************ Madness of a Sane Man ************<p>

* * *

><p>"Tell us, Commander, what part of 'keeping a low profile' did not register in your memory?" The image of the turian Councillor folded his arms across his chest in a display of annoyance.<p>

"That is exactly the reason I initiated this contact Councillor." Sarah bowed her head slightly in a submissive gesture. "Quite a few major events have occured over the past several months. As I am once more a council Spectre I felt it was important that bring you all up to date regarding my current status.

"Before we get into that Shepard, we need some answers." Anderson held up a hand diplomatically but his voice was cold, detached. "According to the information we've recieved you were personally responsible for the death of Tela Vasir, a Spectre of some note." It was clear to Sarah even through the holoprojection that the Councillors were on guard with her due to her actions.

"I understand... in my defense allow me to submit a collection of audio files that were recorded during my encounters with this supposed Spectre." Shepard made a few motions on her omni-tool and played a key clip of Vasir's dying moments. In the clip the asari admitted to participating in the bombing of the trade center. "As you should be able to realize even from this clip, the actions I took were in the best interests of galactic peace. Tela Vasir was an assassin for the Shadow Broker when I encountered her. Her status as a Spectre became irrelevant when she threatened the lives of myself, my crew, and Doctor T'soni.

"Speaking of Doctor T'soni..." The asari Councillor interjected herself skillfully, changing the course of the conversation. "Were you able to secure her safety?"

"Doctor T'soni is now resting at a secure location." Sarah attempted to avoid having to lie outright.

"I see..." the asari councillor seemed to understand the deflection as she did not press the matter further. "What of your own mission then Commander?" Again she altered topics, keeping the conversation fluid.

"Councillors, I must regretfully report that peaceful dialogue with the Collectors could not be established. They are, as you will see from forwarded data, nothing more than drone slaves to a higher conciousness." Sarah did her best to avoid blurting out more Reaper warnings and stick solely to the hard facts. "After successfully activating and using the Omega 4 relay, I proceeded to board the Collector's space station, recover my captive crew, and subsequently escape. The space station itself was destroyed in the process along with the results of their abductions." Sarah paused, shuddering imperceptably as she thought about the partially 'grown' skeleton of the humanoid Reaper.

"What do you meant by 'the results'?" The salarian councillor asked, his interest growing.

"After engaging in direct combat with and retrieving data concerning a massive construct, it appears the Collectors were attempting to create a Reaper. The process required the reduction of human lives to genetic paste in order to be used as part of the base material a Reaper is constructed of.

"I see... so aside from bluntly stating that you have successfully navigated the Omega 4 relay, are you saying that the Collector's themselves are the creators of the Reaper ships?" The turian Councillor cut in harsly.

"No, from all the data we gathered the Collector's are in fact Protheans, genetically repurposed to be nothing more than puppet drones for the Reapers to control." Sarah attempted to be as clear as possible in her explanation, hoping against hope that this time the Council would listen to her.

"Well Commander let's start from the beginning..." The turian Councillor drew a long breath and sat down into a chair, followed closely by the other three Councillors. "We, 'request' that you provide a complete and detailed report regarding your activity and whereabouts since the destruction of the Normandy almost three years ago." Sarah knew that this request was in truth, an order, and she suddenly felt thankful that her ship would be grounded for several weeks while repairs were handled. Taking a deep breath, Sarah started to recount her experiences, explaining nearly everything while omitting certain more questionable details.

* * *

><p>************ Ghosts of a time long past ************<p>

* * *

><p>For what seemed like the first time since awakening on the exam table of a Cerberus space station, Sarah felt at peace. Although she still had questions, she was content to wait. While she wanted so badly to ignore the Normandy and it's dire need for repairs, she did not. The electrifying kiss that Sarah and Liara had shared in the Shadow Broker's office lingered in Sarah's mind and had washed away nearly all of her doubt regarding the feelings of the young asari maiden. Everyone on the crew noticed the change in their commanding officer as Sarah became much more relaxed and casual in her demeanor. The only 'person' who still reserved judgement was EDI, who concluded that she would not have valid data to form a conclusion until actual combat took place.<p>

Over the course of the two and a half weeks Normandy spent in drydock, Sarah divided her attention between her ship and the Council. Her superiors insistence on a complete debriefing had forced her to spend hours daily for the past two weeks defending herself and her actions from scrutiny. With her remaining time, Sarah devoted herself to ensuring that EDI was no longer transmitting surveillance information to the Illusiive man, Cerberus, or anyone else secretly monitoring them. She ordered Tali and to a small extent Legion to assist EDI in reviewing everything in her programming to ensure there were no failsafes, data blocks, or other triggers that could possibly lead to a hostile action on the part of the almost motherly AI. She had been very careful to omit the existince of the AI when relating information to the Council regarding her new vessel.

Of course there had been questions from several people regarding why Liara had been left on Hagalaz and Shepard did her best to smooth over the explanation. According to the testimony that Sarah had practically drilled into Garrus and EDI on their return shuttle trip, the base on Hagalaz was now a friendly installation under the supervision of Liara T'soni. Sarah had kept explanations of the function of the captured facility vague and most began to assume it was a top secret detention facility that would soon be put to use by the Spectre. What she had no one to talk to about however, was her misgivings at having left both Liara and Feron together once more for almost three full weeks. Liara had yet to establish a data uplink with EDI as they had discussed and there were currently no other ways of establishing communications.

The only freetime Sarah had during the day was the three hours of training she spent each morning. Taking full advantage of being in a major city, Sarah had rented out one of the largest combat gyms in Nos Astra, using it for wargames and training sessions to keep her remaining fire team in fighting trim. Sarah noticed more and more that Garrus began to retreat back into his shell and she tried everything she could think of to keep him connected to the team. After setting up a round of one on one matches to allow her fighters to establish dominance over one another, Garrus was put in command of her second fire team. Organized as Shepard, Grunt, and Miranda against Garrus, Thane, and Jacob, they held mock engagements every morning. Sarah also made a point to devote quite a bit of her team's attention to Thane's hand to hand techniques. She insisted that even Grunt take part in the martial training that Thane showed them. Sarah also made a point to have a portion of their oversized cargo bay repurposed as an onboard training area primarily to continue hand to hand exercises.

It was shortly following one of these training sessions that Sarah was making her rounds at the CiC when she spotted Joker in his usual seat at the ship's helm. Waving off several other crewmen that were attempting to get her input on apparent problems she walked briskly towards the secluded pilot.

"So... if you had to do it all again... would you have sent me after the Shadow Broker?" Sarah shot the question out of the dark and left Joker stunned for a few moments before he remembered to close his mouth and turn around smugly to look at his Commander.

"I don't know what you're talking about Commander." Joker was clearly making himself too casual to be normal as he attempted to fiegn ignorance.

"C'mon Jeff I know what I heard when I was down there neck deep in krogan guts. I just gotta know... were you trying to be nice by sending us that data or was it just for fun?" Sarah let a tinge of steel creep into her voice as she locked eyes with her pilot. Joker shifted slightly for a moment and finally answered.

"Look, it's not my fault ok? EDI is the one that wanted to know what she could do to help you improve your 'fighting performance.' Said you were getting pretty damn sloppy and needed a pick me up. So there I was gettin grilled by a toaster and what do I say? First thing that comes to mind.. 'Give her a reason to talk to Liara T'soni'. That is ALL I suggested!" Joker was now defending himself passionately as he got more involved in the retelling of his innocence.

"EDI?" Sarah lifted her eyes upward in a reflex manuver made when calling out to something unseen. As if on cue, EDI's light blue holographic image flicked to life next to Joker.

"Yes commander?" Her response was as polite as always.

"Is what Joker said true? You acted on your own conclusion that I needed... what... I needed 'help' getting back my killing edge?" Sarah was trying very hard now to maintain a serious composure while inwardly laughing to herself.

"Shepard, based on my calculations and collected data you would have further continued a downward spiral of degraded combat performance until such time as your life expired. As you are my Captain I consulted Mr. Moreau on an advisable course of action to accomplish changing your state of mind in a positive manner." EDI admitted casually to the actions she had taken, unaware of any reason for possible offense at her decision.

"Well... thank you, EDI, Joker..." Sarah nodded in understanding as she thought about how strange it felt to be thanking a machine for helping her to feel better.

"So, now that you're not angry think maybe you can fill me in on why we left your better half on a hellhole planet?" Joker became serious as well and the humerous facade he normally kept expertly in place fell away.

"I won't even ask how you know about Liara... as long as you understand I'll boil your eyeballs if you spy on me in my room." Sarah spoke in a sweet voice with hidden chill that forced Joker to shiver slightly as he nodded in understanding. "As for her current whereabouts... as I've mentioned before, she is resting safely at a secure location. As our pilot, you are one of only five people, including EDI, that knows where that location is. Understand soldier, for your own safety, it's better that you not know anything more about this." Sarah called Joker a soldier to remind him that sometimes it was a soldier's place to not ask too many questions.

"I understand Commander, I just needed to know that Liara's ok, or better yet if she pulled that stick out of her ass." The middle aged man flashed a boyish grin at his Commander as she faked a moment of extreme displeasure at the remark.

"Actually, MISTER Moreau, that's a very good question. How about you prep the ship for launch and we go find out first hand the status of said stick." Sarah couldn't help but laugh openly for a moment as she imagined Liara's confusion if someone were to ask her to remove the stick from her ass.

"Aye aye Commander we should be prepped for launch in thirty, flight time will be another several hours same as last time. That should give you just enough time to get yourself all butched up and ready for a hot night." Joker again poked fun at the captain, making light of what most humans would see as a lesbian relationship between Sarah and Liara.

"How do you know Liara's not the butch in the relationship?" Sarah allowed the moment of levity and teased back.

"Well..." the question brought pause to the usually witty pilot as he seemed to enter deep thought for a time. "Nah... there's no way in hell you'd be caught dead in a dress much less let yourself be tied down and spanked silly."

"Okay, little too much that time... and for your information Joker, I happen to like wearing a dress every now and then. I just keep expecting someone will show up to kill me wherever I go so I have to dress accordingly." With a measure of true nostalgia for a time long past, Sarah remembered her old life on MIndoir.

To say that Sarah had a normal childhood would be a lie, her father was a former member of the terran SAS while her mother was a descendant of the Shinkage-ryu school of martial combat. In an effort to get away from their former lives and jobs, her parents had opted to dissapear out on the fringes of known space. The pregnant wife and husband attracted very little attention settling on Mindoir as farmers and burying their past. When Sarah was born it was decided she would be the heir of the Shinkage-ryu style along with being trained in modern tactics by her father. From the moment Sarah could walk her mother devoted every waking moment to training her daughter. Naturally, the fact that Sarah was the heir to the shinkage-ryu school was a highly guarded secret, one that not even the alliance military were aware of.

Sarah's parents kept her isolated from outside influences until sending her to High School. She had first set foot in the small colonial learning facility and treated it as if it were hostile territory. That was the first time she had worn a dress as well. Her mother forced her to wear 'pretty clothes' and behave as a regular girl in order for her to experience and adapt to the harsh social environment that was human high school. It was during this time, in the single short year where she pretended to live a normal life, that she had enjoyed wearing dresses. After the extensive training her mother had subjected her to in order to prepare for social interaction, she was made all too aware of the nature of young males. With that knowledge firmly in place she had begun to enjoy wearing dresses as a way to tease her percieved opponents.

While Sarah excelled at 'fitting in' among the adolecensce of Mindoir, she had been very bored. For years she had trained with the sword because it was the tradition of her mother's family to pass on their style. For almost as long her father had taught her every facet of terrestial gun fighting that he knew, insisting that in the modern world sword fighting was useless. It was an ageless stab between her parents and as a compromise, they taught her hand to hand combat together. The result was that Sarah was very much, a fighter. The calm, confident exterior that her mother had spent countless hours helping her create slowly became her true self. She remembered and nearly felt sick once more at having first been thankful when the slavers attacked simply for the chance to use what she had been taught. Once more she felt a heavy ancient guilt fall over her as she remembered the loss of her parents.

"Shepard, you ok?" Joker broke the silence, he had respectfully remained quiet when Sarah did not continue their conversation. He spoke up now upon noticing that the woman appeared sick.

"Fine... must be something I ate." She put a hand over her mouth lightly and took a deep breath, regaining her composure. "At any rate, I'm retiring to my room, notify me when we are approaching Hagalaz."

"Roger that, EDI I need you to..." Joker snapped a rapid sideways salute before turning to face the flight controls.

"Status reports for all engines available under tab 4 Jeff." EDI cut him off by providing the information she calculated he would ask for.

"Uhh... right.. thanks" Joker was still trying to get used to having the AI anticipate his requests. "Oh! Commander! Although I did say that we CAN take off in thirty... what about the rest of the crew still on shore leave?"

"Send out the recall notice... I want to be wheel's up the minute the last person steps onboard. EDI, call Miranda up to CIC." Sarah gave one more nod to Joker and walked back along the neck of the ship into the CIC, going around the large holodisplay of the galaxy towards the elevator. For the space of several seconds Sarah allowed herself to feel guilty for trampling across whatever plans or activities her crew had been a part of. Closing her eyes and breathing evenly she let her mask of being a council Spectre fall into place. The first thing she noticed was that Yeoman Kelly Chambers was not at her usual post next to the CIC. Upon this realization Sarah allowed another concern to take root, had Kelly taken care of her fish during the past weeks? After some reflection Sarah realized that with no need to use the CIC she had no memory of seeing or speaking with the cute yet somewhat naive girl. Breaking her line of thought, the elevator doors swung open revealing Miranda Lawson wearing workmans attire of closefitting undershirt and coveralls. Upon seeing Sarah, Miranda allowed an almost pouty frown to play across her cherublike features. With long, relaxed steps she exited the elevator and approached her waiting Commander.

"Shepard, I was still making some final modifications to our new training area." MIranda was trying to get Sarah to let her go back to her project.

"Well those modifications can wait for a little while. Ms. Lawson. I have ordered that the recall notice be sent out to all crew and that we depart the moment our last crew member sets foot on the ship. As my XO I am ordering you to see to the rapid recovery of our crew, if any complications arise notify me immediately. Please let me remind you Miranda... rapid recovery does not neccessarrily mean 'by force'." Sarah took on a slightly tired tone by the end of her statement to imply she was retiring to her quarters.

"Aye aye Ma'am." Miranda dropped the pout and snapped off a crisp salute. Not waiting for Sarah to return the gesture, the raven haired woman moved to a console at the CIC to begin her work.

* * *

><p>************ Bad Trip ************<p>

* * *

><p>With nearly three full weeks of time to waste and a virtually unlimited bank account, Garrus had willfully lost himself in the Nos Astra night life. It had started out as a group effort to educate the young krogan 'boy' in the ways of the world. Be it drinking, fighting, or women. After several nights of wild debauchery involving several employees of Hotel Azure, the turian had lost track of the naive but very belligerent krogan somewhere in their second nightclub. By that time he had been too drunk to really care much and finally found himself at a third nightclub dancing with a pair of asari. The pair had stuck to him for the remainder of the night and even showed him a memorable time afterwards. The next day, he awoke in between them with a terrible headache and only partial memories of what had happened.<p>

It wasn't long before Garrus realized that the pair of asari he had slept with were scam artists slowly working to entrap him so that he would be forced to become an indentured servant. Their tactic was to gain the trust of their target then strip them of all possessions so that they had nowhere to go, then offer servitude as the only way out. After another series of mutual "manipulations", Garrus moved on, finding another nightclub and another adventure. This pattern of partying and random encounter continued, and when the recall order was sent, Garrus was in no condition to even notice. Having long ago lost anything of value, the turian was reduced to snoring soundly in an alleyway wearing a garbage bag. Garrus, along with Grunt and several other male crew members, soon became priority retrieval targets for a team lead by Miranda and Tali. Thanks to his subdermal communicator, the turian was easily located even in his deplorable state. Miranda was the first to set eyes on him and she recoiled in shock almost immediately.

"My god, are we sure this reading is accurate? The smell is outrageous!" Miranda was forced to cover her nose with her hand as Tali pushed her way through the piled up garbage in the vicinity in order to reach Garrus. The snoring turian had somehow ended up at the bottom of a garbage disposal chute with nothing but a large bag to cover him. Tali reached his side and gently began prodding him in the face, calling out his name. After a few minutes, the quarian gave up.

"Garrus Vakarian! On your feet soldier that's an order!" Tali suddenly shouted, increasing the volume control on her suit. Coughing loudly and flailing about in surprise, the drunken turian awoke.

"Wha' th'hell d'you want!" Garrus slurred his words angrily as he stumbled to his feet, his reptillian eyes dilated and unfocused.

"Garrus, this is an order from Shepard, all hands are to return to the ship for departure." Tali kept her tone serious as she tried to appeal to the turian's innate nature to follow orders.

"Departure t'where? S'not like ahm gonna be missing much if I just skip it." Garrus waved a hand dismissively and tried to turn away from the quarian.

"Garrus, this is not a discussion, it is an order." Miranda raised her voice to be heard in impatience.

"Garrus..." Tali touched the turian gently with her hand. "I think... I might understand a little of what you're going through." Tali's head drooped slightly as her mouthpeice continued to flash in time with her speech. "I've noticed that you care for our Captain deeply, as do I." She had lowered her suit volume and dropped her voice to a whisper. "Mourning your own happiness or celebrating the Captain's?" Tali tried to ask sagely.

"Neither..." Garrus grunted in annoyance. "Got no idea what'cher talkin'bout." He slurred dimly, turning and shoving at what he perceived to be Tali's general location.

"We've got no time for this... let's bring him in." Nodding to the two marines that accompanied them, Miranda took charge of the situation as her nose screamed for relief.

"Wait!" Tali held her hand up to stall the approaching soldiers. "He might kill you in the state he's in." The quarian let out a frustrated sigh. "Garrus," She started again, "It's Tali, Shepard is waiting for us."

"No she'snot!" Garrus shot back hotly, a fire of awareness creeping into his eyes. "She'sdead!" His words continued to slur together. "Sides... s'not me she needsh anyway... just that... that selfish asari bitch." Garrus blurted out the accusation and buried his fist into the pile of trash a single tear rolling down his leathery skin. Reaching out and hugging him gently, Tali did her best to calm the secretly heartbroken turian. After hearing the angry rant, even Miranda felt a small stab of pity for the turian. After several long minutes of Garrus staring into the distance while Tali hugged him and whispered reassurances, he finally seemed to become aware of his surroundings enough to realize the situation.

"Ms. Lawson... Tali..." Garrus seemed almost shy saying the quarian's name. "Sorry for the trouble, I'll help recover the krogan as a way of saying thanks." With little effort, Garrus was again the cool, detached killer that Miranda was familiar with. Only Tali knew that this was all an act. Giving Garrus a nod, Miranda quickly turned and left the garbage disposal, eager to finally breathe fresh air.

* * *

><p>************ Butterfly ************<p>

* * *

><p>"Ah... Hagalaz base this is the Normandy on final approach requesting confirmatoin on those landing coordinates."<p>

"Roger, Normandy, the coordinates are accurate." Came the impatient reply of a young male voice that Joker thought sounded distinctly like a drell's

"Copy that, Normandy on final approach, out." Joker ended the transmission and spared a glance at the holodisplay of his now inseprable co-pilot. "What d'you think EDI?"

"About what Jeff?" EDI queried.

"About what? About this! This whole... thing! I mean... Shepard comes down here with Liara and Garrus in a shuttle, then only Garrus and Shepard come back, both pretty banged up and neither one say anything about where Liara went. Finally Shepard tells everyone that Liara is now in charge of this 'facility'." He put a great emphasis on the word to stress the sarcasm. "Now here we are landing the Normandy somewhere on a planet with boiling oceans and flash freezing nights." Joker had come to greatly enjoy having EDI around to voice his opinions to.

"I have no relevant commentary to make Jeff." EDI deftly avoided discussing the topic Sarah had expressly forbid her from discussing.

"Yeah I guess you wouldn't would you." Joker let out a grunt of dissapointment as he manuvered the Normandy into the twilight stormband, letting out a gasp of surprise as he laid eyes on the massive ship now before him. Whatever Joker had been expecting, it had certainly not been to find a very unique, very large vessel navigating the endless storm of Hagalaz. Without another word, the ace pilot brought the Normandy safely to dock along the underside of the massive 'facility.' When the final docking arms locked into place and Joker's flight controls flashed green the still slightly awed pilot blinked free of his wonderment.

"Commander we are now docked at the facility on Hagalaz as per your request." He had brought up Shepard's personal communicator.

"I copy that Joker, Miranda will have the deck while I'm away." Came Sarah's short reply. Joker noticed the barely hidden excitement in Sarah's voice and let out a small laugh of anticipation himself as he wished Shepard good luck.

"EDI," Sarah waited expectantly for the AI's reply.

"Yes commander?" The female voice acknowledged.

"See to it that no one gets on or off the Normandy without my express permission. The location of this base and it's purpose must be kept secret." Sarah's voice was grim for a moment as she considered the possible ramifications of improperly wording her order to protect this secret. Sudden images of EDI taking drastic, inhuman measures to keep the information safe flashed into her mind. "If someone happens to discover the truth, I want to be notified, at that point I will decide on what measures to take."

"Understood Commander." EDI replied without a pause.

The roundup of the Normandy's crew had taken the better part of twenty four hours, giving Sarah plenty of time to sleep comfortably, shower, and panic. She had spent the majority of her time awake worrying over what to wear. As it turned out, she had nothing to wear outside of ship fatigues, several designs of hardsuits, and the single evening dress Kasumi had bought for her to wear during their infiltration of Donovan Hock's mansion. Time and again she had slipped in and out of the evening dress, she even asked EDI to place an order for a body mirror to be installed in her cabin. Finally, after taking off the tight fitting evening dress for the fifth time. Sarah accepted that it was simply too revealing of an outfit for a casual meeting and settled on wearing her standard ship fatigues. Like everyone else in the crew, Sarah's array of Cerberus issue fatigues and hardsuits had all had their logos screatched out. The slightly baggy, light grey, cargo pants suited her well. The military boots and personally tailored shirt also fit as comfortably as always.

Giving herself one final nervous glance as she stood fidgeting in the airlock, Sarah did her best to keep herself outwardly calm. After a small series of decontamination scans the inner doors of the airlock opened and revealed the dimly lit atmosphere of the Shadow Broker's base. Not wanting to appear nervous, Sarah stepped confidently off the Normandy, nodding a casual greeting to the pair of armed guards which waited for her as escort. Following her appointed escort, Sarah left the Normandy behind and navigated the slightly narrow winding hallways of the large ship. After a few minutes her escort signalled silently to the doorway ahead of them and turned away, leaving Sarah standing in front of a familiar pressure door.

"Shepard!" Liara's excited voice broke the silence as a small screen with her smiling face appeared to the right of the doorway. "It's so good to see you." Sarah was almost certain she heard relief in Liara's voice. Continuing to work off screen Liara keyed in a command to open the door. Sparing a brief glance to the empty hallway behind her Sarah stepped into the now familiar inner sanctum of the Shadow Broker. The large crack Liara had torn into the ceiling along with the columns destroyed by the Broker were already repaired. A new, complete set of furniture adorned the previously sparse interior including several large recliner seats positioned in front of holodisplays and a pair of designer couches facing eachother with a low coffee table between occupying the center of the room. Datapads and food trays covered the table and several other brand new desks positioned around the room.

"I've set up several different workstations to better organize the various categories of data available to us now. Feel free to take a look." Liara was clearly eager to show off the results of her efforts for the past three weeks. The asari herself was seated in a large synth-leather office chair facing the same wall she had used when Sarah had left. Liara had reworked the holodisplays to allow for a horseshoe style array which reached out from the back wall to either side of her chair. The scene immediately struck Sarah as being nearly identical to what she had seen when first entering this room prepared for combat. A faint hum caught Sarah's attention and she shifted her weight, turning in place to face the noise. To her surprise, she was now staring at a floating Sphere of glowing white energy.

"Welcome back Shadow Broker." The sphere spoke in a friendly, mechanical voice and Sarah realized she was looking at a holoprojection of some type.

"What's this?" Sarah called to Liara with a hint of amusement.

"That's the old Broker's VI assistant. It's actually been helpful with rebuilding the network." Liara was still working quickly at the array of displays all around her, her slender, elegant fingers moving rapidly.

"Please let me know if I can organize anything else for you Shadow Broker." The Sphere of white light floated away slowly and Sarah barely stifled a laugh at being called the Shadow Broker.

"It also seems to think anyone in the room is the Broker. I had been meaning to play around with the settings." Liara sighed as she waved her hand across the field of holodisplays, causing the entire horseshoe to vanish.

"Seems like a pretty basic projection for a personal VI assisstant." Shepard commented as she walked up Liara's chair.

"It is a default setting. I beleive the Shadow Broker had no interest in anything relating to well... adding a personal touch." Liara made a concious effort to use a human phrase as she stood and faced Sarah. The pair looked at eachother and neither could stop themselves from smiling unconciously. Although her clothes seemed to be in slight disarray, Liara appeared otherwise healthy, which Sarah was thankful for. Liara was wearing a large, dark green, longsleeved shirt clearly meant for warmth along with a pair of loosefitting grey pants. A small band of blue was visible at Liara's waist and it caught Sarah's attention. For a moment she thought she saw a flash of red before Liara shifted her profile and pulled down her shirt discreetly.

"How are you?" Sarah asked simply, allowing all pretenses to fall away as she stared at Liara with a gentle smile.

"I'm a bit overwhelmed to be honest." Liara said a bit sheepishly as she looked down briefly. "The Shadow Broker had more resources than you can imagine. Here, come on over." Liara regained a bit of confidence in her voice as she re-activated the holodisplays she had closed, keying in a few commands to consolidate the display into a single image. The display was a like a spider's web of names, locations, and organizations connected to eachother by lines and arrows. Sarah did not bother trying to read them all as she realized the sheer scope of the image before her.

"He had top level access to the turian and asari governments. What's more, at least one salarian dalatrass traded intel." Liara tapped a few more keys and several names were highlighted briefly."At least I get to share it with you." She paused and looked directly at Sarah, a quiet hunger in her eyes for a moment before her shy smile covered her face. Sarah smiled back even as she poked fun at Liara.

"You're not going to turn into a recluse with creepy information on everyone in the galaxy... are you?" She did her best to keep her amusement out of her voice with only marginal success.

"I can understand the temptation..." Liara frowned as she took on a serious tone. "I've got all the secrets of the galaxy at my fingertips. Give me ten minutes, and I could start a war." She reached out to either side with her palms open to accentuate her comment. "But I've got a purpose." Her tone lightened again as she locked eyes with Sarah. "Helping you stop the Reapers. That will keep me honest." Sarah raised an eyebrow and let a smirk of disbelief play across her face at Liara's statement "You know.. relatively speaking." Once more Liara was shyly innocent and Sarah realized just how inexperienced they both were with any kind of intimate conversation.

"If you're in over your head we could just crash this thing and walk away." Sarah allowed herself to slip into an authoritative tone for a moment as she stared pointedly at Liara. Silently showing Liara that there would be no guilt or blame placed if the decision to destory the facility was made.

"Thats just it." Liara shook her head in response. "In a way, I fell like I belong here." A mischevious smile played across Liara's face for a moment before being replaced by a flush of embarrassment. "Working on my own I was always hunting for leads." She added defensively. "With the Shadow Broker's resources it's about organizing, cataloguing. I've got everything Sarah... this is a dream job." Liara smiled happily for a moment before a slight frown crossed her features. "Although the location could be better." She added with a hint of annoyance.

"Have you found anything useful yet?" Sarah asked, shifting her attention back to the web of names displayed before her.

"The Shadow Broker knew about the Reapers!" Liara gushed excitedly, turning away from the console and motioning Sarah to follow her along the backwall to a short flight of steps which led to a lofted area behind what Sarah had thought was the back wall of the room. The lofted space overlooked the rest of the room and several waist high tables covered with food sat to either said of a large pressure door set into the actual back wall of the room. "I think that perhaps that's why he offered to help prove Saren's guilt to the council." Liara picked up a mug of liquid off of one table and took several sips.

"He didn't want Saren to succeed." Sarah nodded in understanding of Liara's thought process.

"He also knew the Collectors were Protheans repurposed to be Harbringer's puppets." Liara grimaced and shut her eyes as she finished the statement. Sarah reached out and put a hand on Liara's shoulder reassuringly. The knowledge of the Prothean's fate had incensed Liara and she had quietly vowed to ensure that no race would ever have to suffer such a terrible fate again. "There's even some data on the Protheans. I think he knew what was coming and was looking for a way to survive." Liara couldn't resist allowing a quick smirk of contempt to cross her features.

"Why would he still be looking at the Protheans? They gave us the warnings through the beacons and the conduit on Ilos, but we've used those." Sarah tried to consider possibilities even as she waited for Liara's response.

"The Shadow Broker seemed to think there was more out there." Liara seemed deep in thought herself as she answered. "Perhaps the Protheans had other plans." She shook her head to indicate the lack of evidence to support her idea. "Or maybe he was just grasping at anything that offered some hope." She sighed, trying to avoid the crushing weight of despair the topic of invasion brought.

"How'd you know what the Shadow Broker was?" Sarah smoothly changed topics, enjoying the conversation just because it allowed her to hear Liara's soothing, gentle voice.

"I didn't." Liara smirked "I had no idea what to expect when we finally found him. I had researched pre-spaceflight cultures during some of my Prothean studies though. I know a bit about the yahg..." She looked out into the large room below briefly then back to Sarah. "I'll put together some detailed files on them at one of the terminals later if you want to look. They're a fascinating culture, and a terrifying one."

"How's... Feron doing?" Sarah finally felt comfortable enough to broach the line of questioning that had quietly cut away at her for months.

"As well as you'd expect after two years of intermittent torture." Liara's face darkened in a frown.

"Is he going to be okay? It would have been a good idea to have him return to the Normandy for a checkup." Sarah admonished Liara.

"I don't know." Liara shook her head. "He insisted and still insists that he's fine. He wants to work so I'm letting him help. Maybe it takes his mind off of it." Liara looked at Sarah helplessly for a moment.

"So... you and Feron..." Sarah felt a massive rock suddenly clog her throat as she failed to properly voice the question she had been aching to ask for so long.

"Are just friends..." Liara quickly finished the statement with a small hint of exasperation before looking at Sarah more closely. "Why Commander Shepard, you' not... jealous are you?" Liara had taken on a mock dramatic tone as she teased the now blushing human woman. "If you're jealous perhaps you'd better... take action." Liara's thinly veiled invitation caused Sarah's pale cheeks to color slightly. "Besides, I believe you made it clear that I was, as you humans say, taken." She looked longingly into Sarah's emerald green eyes.

"You know... I didn't actually fly all the way here just to discuss your findings... Dr. T'soni." Sarah took a step towards Liara and lowered her voice.

"Look... about that kiss..." Liara took a step back and looked away, shifting nervously. "We'd just finished the fight." She was talking quickly to explain away one of the most memorable moments in Sarah's life. Liara was clearly struggling to hide her feelings and Sarah made a mental note to punish her later. "I miss you." Liara stated plainly. "But it's been two years. I don't... I don't want to put any pressure on you." She folded her arms resolutely as her back stiffened.

"I have fond memories of the last time you put pressure on me." Sarah teased Liara now, knowing that the asari was simply providing every oppurtunity for Sarah to back out as a show of respect.

"So do I." Liara couldn't hide a smile as she stared at Sarah.

"Look, why don't you come up to the Normandy for drinks? I'll have Joker take us on a tour of the galaxy." Sarah allowed her casual confidence to fall into place as she smiled.

"I'd like that." Liara admitted with a nod of her head. For a moment she allowed herself to forget all of the pressing jobs and data feeds that needed her attention..

"Good, get your things and come to the ship." Sarah pushed, not allowing Liara the chance to back out.

"I'll... I'll meet you there in half an hour." Liara said in a rush as she cast about quickly for a data pad, keying in a few quick commands before rushing through the pressure door set into the back wall. Smiling to herself, Sarah made her way back out of the inner sanctum and back to the Normandy, where she waited patiently for Liara to arrive.

* * *

><p>************ The Promise ************<p>

* * *

><p>On a whim, Sarah rushed to her cabin and changed into her evening gown. The black, backless dress left little to imagination and Sarah felt very exposed standing by the Normandy's airlock in high heels. She had ordered her entire crew to remain silent to ensure no one made a comment about seeing her in a dress. After agonizingly long minutes that felt like hours, the airlock doors hissed open and Sarah was greeted with the sight of Liara T'soni in an elegant dress of her own. The young asari maiden wore a simple dress made of deep purple silk which hugged the curves of her body. The conservative neckline revealed nothing but the absence of sleeves allowed Sarah to admire Liara's elegant arms. The hem of the dress touched Liara's ankle's, the material wrapped tightly around her legs. This prevented her from moving any faster than a casual walking pace. Liara was gripping what appeared to be the same display stand of dog tags Sarah had seen her grab on Illium. Waving nervously, Sara smiled at Liara as she unconsiouly tried to smooth the hem of her own skirt which was several inches above the knee.<p>

"Hello Liara, welcome aboard." She offered her hand to Liara as the asari walked toward her gingerly.

"Sarah, you look... beautiful." Liara stared openly at the provacatively clothed human woman before taking Sarah's hand tenderly in her own.

"Ah... um... Thanks." Sarah suddenly became very self concious and gripped Liara's hand tightly

"So!" Sarah almost squeaked in nervousness "I promesed Joker that you would stop by to say hello to him this time." She began guiding herself and Liara toward's the pilot's chair.

"Yeah sure fine just talk about me like I'm not even holy shit Shepard's in a dress." Joker was suddenly stunned speechless as he took in the sight of Sarah Shepard in a very revealing evening gown. With Liara standing next to her in a conservative but also very attractive gown, Joker almost thought he was looking at a pair of Fornax models.

"Right! Well Liara, you know Joker. Joker, you know Liara! Glad you two got to see eachother... moving on!" Sarah did her best to rush through the meeting.

"Hold it! Hold it! Hold it!" Joker exclaimed dramatically. "Liara! How you been girl? You know how much I've missed you?" Joker had spun his chair around and now held out his arms expecting a hug. Liara responded by reluctantly allowing the awkward embrace while looking to Sarah with a momentary frown.

"I'll have to get her to explain why she suddenly doesnt like Joker later." Sarah thought to herself.

"Listen," Joker started up happily. "I know you two kids will be up to all sorts of fun shenanigans later and all I ask is that you act out a few scenese of Vaenia for my sake." He did his best to avoid laughing as Sarah rolled her eyes in exasperation.

"Vaenia?" Liara tilted her head to the side and repeated the name in confusion.

"Oh wait you mean you don't... oh well then there's... ah forget it." Joker finally gave up, crestfallen. "Look.. all I really wanted to say is that if anyone's earned this it's you and the Commander so ahh... have a good time ok?" Suddenly the tension made sense to Sarah as she realized that there must have been a great deal of anger between Liara and Joker relating to wether or not he had been the cause of Sarah's death.

Several minutes of conversation rolled by between Liara and the bearded pilot, smiles planted firmly on both their faces. Finally, Sarah shifted impatiently and Liara brought the talk to a close.

"Well, Joker, I am relieved to see that you have found yourself again at the helm of Commander Shepard's vessel as I know there is no better pilot in the galaxy. Thank you... for bringing Sarah back to me this time." Liara hugged Joker once more as she fought back tears. Joker himself teared up for a moment as he nodded and saluted Liara smartly.

Liara and her human escort left the cockpit and made their way to the elevator, riding it up to the 'Loft'. The pair stepped into the cool air of Sarah's personal quarters and Liara looked around in surprise.

"Oh my, this is quite the room." Liara took in her surroundings in amazement. The entire left hand wall when entering the room was a fish tank providing a gentle blue glow to the room. The cabin consisted of a changing area near the entrance and a large enclosed office area along the right wall. This overlooked a small den and large king sized bed further in. A transparent divider wall filled with her collection of model starships divided the den from the office area of her cabin. A pair of steps led into the den and to the bed from the changing area. Overhead, Liara could see out into space through a very large viewport in the ceiling almost as large as the king sized bed beneath it.

"Yeah it's definetely an improvement over the original Normandy isn't it?" Sarah asked casually as she produced a small bottle of wine with two clear glasses . She set all three down on the coffee table situated in the den. The table was surrounded on two sides by couches, one pressed up against the divider wall and the other against the right wall. The bed took up the third side of the table. Sarah poured herself a glass of wine and then filled Liara's glass, leaving both on the table as she and Liara Sat down on the soft couches.

"I brought you something." Liara held out the display stand she had brought along. "It took some digging but I recovered your tags." She held out the display shyly, a hopeful look in her eyes.

"It seems like forever since I was an Alliance soldier." Sarah took the display frame form Liara and looked down at the badly worn and repolished tags. "First I get tapped for the Specres, then Cerberus..."

"You succeed against odds most people wouldn't even take on. It's no wonder everyone wants you on their side." Liara spoke in reverence as she stared at Sarah, taking in her every action. "But I know it wears on you." Liara frowned slightly, a hint of sympathy in her voice.

"You konw... I thought I'd lost these." Sarah sidestepped the subject, not wanting to sour the mood.

"You can't get back everything you've lost... but sometimes you get lucky." Liara seemed pleased that Sarah liked her gift.

"Yeah... that was the idea..." Sarah couldn't resist teasing Liara for her obvious metaphor but the asari maiden failed to understand the play on words. The smug grin from Sarah only ended up confusing Liara further and finally Sarah just laughed and shook her head.

"So how are you doing Sarah? I mean.. really... not what you're telling your squad to keep morale up." Liara's face became serious and she stared intently at Sarah.

"Honestly? I'm tired Liara..." Sarah shook her head and let out a deep sigh. "Tired of the council not listening to a word I say unless I have mountains of evidence to back it up. Tired of being strung along by groups like Cerberus. Worst of all... I'm tired of having my closest friends not believe me." She shook her head in frustration and Liara nodded in understanding.

"Yes, I heard about what Ashley said on Horizon, I'm sorry." Liara offered her sympathy. "But their shortsightedness doesn't diminish what you've accomplished." She pressed on with encouragement. "You and your team destroyed the Collectors and walked out alive." Liara didn't try to hide the amazement in her voice.

"The Collectors were just Harbinger's minions." Sarah growled angrily as she leaned back into the couch, staring out into space. "He's still out there, and he won't go down as easily."

"Give yourself some credit Sarah, without the Collectors the Reapers will have one less tool to use when they arrive." Liara put a hand on Sarah's thigh lightly to re-assure her.

"Between you and me?" I have no idea how I'm going to do this." Sarah shrugged her shoulders dejectedly and looked hopelessly at Liara. "I'm doing everything I can but..." She trailed off, lowering her gaze.

"You've done more than most." Liara interjected, refusing to give up on instilling a sense of hope in her human companion.

"At least they can't call us young or primitive anymore... we fought them in their own base and won." Sarah mused more to herself as memories of Harbringer's endless ridicule replayed in her mind.

"Young?" Liara tried to lighten the mood again. "You know I'm 108... 109 in a couple of months." a smile creased the sky blue skin of her face as she faked a pout for having to remind Sarah.

"I'll have to get you something nice." Sarah grinned playfully at Liara.

"You're alive again..." Liara paused and stared at Sarah, a reverence in her tone. "I've got everything I want." She drew in a long breath and then smiled softly. "That isn't what's really bothering you though is it? I can feel something deeper eating away at your thoughts." Stunned into silence, Sarah looked into Liara's deep blue eyes for long minutes before finally working up the courage to reply.

"I told you before that I'm basically no longer human right? I can't tell you how many times I've woken up afraid that that I'll find out I'm actually just some clone with imprinted memories or that I'm really a synthetic prototype for cerberus shock troopers." Sarah shuddered involuntarily. "I died Liara... and I remember dying... I cant describe how alone I was... the only thing that kept me together was..." Sarah paused, realizing that tears had formed in her eyes and and that Liara was staring at her intently. "The only thing I had to hold onto was you Liara... I don't know if I could have stayed sane without you." Sarah stared at Liara and waited for her to reply.

"I know..." Liara said finally, clearly suppressing an urge to break down into tears herself. "I have an idea of what you went through because... I felt everything that day."

"What do you mean?" Sarah asked, her curiosity raised.

"Through our bond I felt you die Sarah!" Liara blurted out in anguish. "You're wondering why I've been so cold to you. I was cruel, I know." She took a few breaths to regain her composure. "Although I wanted to protect you from the Shadow Broker that was only an excuse... I was afraid... and still am afraid... of losing you again." Liara swallowed hard and looked into Sarah's eyes helplessly, having laid bare herself and her fears. The pair stared at eachother for a time, neither one spoke.

"So tell me what you want." Liara changed the course of the conversation. "If this all were to end tomorrow, what would happen to us?" The question was straightforward but almost entirely off topic.

"I don't know..." Sarah had to blink a few times while processing the sudden question. Finally shrugging, she continued. "Marriage, old age, and alot of little blue children?" She allowed a teasing smirk to play across her features as she gave Liara an honest answer.

"You just... say these things..." Liara lightly shoved at Sarah's shoulder and looked away shyly, a deep blush of darker blue coloring her sky blue skin. Liara frowned and stood up, walking over to a small nightstand where the burned out remains of Sarah's old hardsuit helmet sat. The asari maiden touched the surface of the helmet hesitantly and then brought her hands up to her face, burying her sobs in the palms of her hands. "Goddess... you were dead!" She cried out, her whole body shuddering as she sobbed openly.

"I got better." Sarah reached out to place a hand on Liara's shoulder, silently asking her turn around. Liara turned, wrapping her arms around Sarah briefly before shaking her head and stepping away.

"This time... but you're going to leave again!" She began to pace the small room as she looked everywhere except at the human woman. "When the Reapers finally arrive... you'll dive into the fray." She lifted her gaze to stare out of the large window in the ceiling. Slowly, Sarah moved to stand behind Liara, waiting for her to turn around. After a minute, Liara turned and looked at Sarah, her face wet with tears. Both Liara and Sarah took eachother's hands, holding tight to the warmth flowing between them as they unconciously moved closer together.

"I spent two years mourning you..." Liara breathed heavily, keeping her eyes locked on Sarah's. "So if we're going to try this again... I need you promise me that you're always coming back."

"I dunno... that's a pretty big promise to make..." Sarah put all of her effort into making herself sound serious. "I'm going to need something worthwhile to come back to." She finally allowed a smile to cover her face as she teased Liara's nose with her lips.

"I'm... open to suggestions..." Liara had begun to breathe heavily as she became more agressive with her own mouth.

"Look on the bright side... I haven't stayed dead yet." Sarah smirked and traced her tongue up Liara's neck, leting go of her hands to pull Liara into a tight embrace.

"You make a compelling argument Sarah." Liara replied, suddenly locking her lips on Sarah's ear lobe, illiciting a pleasureable gasp from the human woman.

"Oh I'm just getting started." She grinned mischeviously and reached into a fold of Liara's silk dress. Within seconds Liara's eyes shifted from dark blue to jet black as she let out a moan of pleasure and dug her fingers into Sarah's back.


End file.
